Born in 1961, Beril Dedeoğlu is a professor in the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Galatasaray University, as well as director of the International Relations Department. Her subjects of focus include the European Union and international security studies. She is a graduate of Galatasaray High School and Istanbul University’s International Relations Department. She completed her MA and Phd in Institute of Social Sciences and International Relations of Istanbul University. She was appointed as an assistant professor in the same institute (1993-1995). In 1995, Dedeoğlu began her position in Galatasaray University’s International Relations Department. In 1999 she became an assistant professor and in 2005 she was appointed a fulltime professor. She has also given courses in Kadir Has University.

Prof. Dedeoğlu appears in numerous scholarly articles and books. She is a columnist at Star, Today’s Zaman and Agos dailies and her articles about international politics has been published in Zaman and Yeni Şafak dailies. She appeared in TV programs on Kanal 24 and Samanyolu Haber; and she is still part of a TV programme called Açı (Angle) on TRT Haber. She is married with two children.

Hilal Elver is a Research Professor of Global Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, an appointment she has held since 2002, and is co-director of the Project on Global Climate Change, Human Security, and Democracy housed at the Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies at UCSB. She has a law degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Ankara Law School where she started her teaching career. During this period, she was also appointed by the Turkish government as the founding legal advisor of the Ministry of Environment. Later she became the General Director of Women’s Studies in the Office of the Prime Minister. In 1994, she was appointed to the UNEP Chair in Environmental Diplomacy by the United Nations Environment Program at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta. Since 1996 she has been teaching at several American universities. In 1993 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, and 1996-1998 she was a visiting fellow at the Center of International Studies at Princeton University.

Her publications have focused mainly on international environmental law, and international human rights law. Her book, Peaceful Uses of International Rivers:

Case of Euphrates and Tigris River, was published in 2002. Currently she is working on a book project dealing with secularism and human rights in the Islamic world. She teaches comparative law, international human rights, and environmental law.

Sunhye Hwang is the president of Sookmyung Women’s University, since taking office in 2012, and has been Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at that same university since 1991. She is a legal scholar holding a B.A in English Language & Literature from Sookmyung Women’s University, an M.A in English Literature from Shippensburg State University and a Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. From 2001-2005 she served as the Dean of Student Affairs in Sookmyung Women’s University, then from 2008-2010 she was appointed as the Dean of Graduate School of Education and before her presidency from 2010-2011 she served as the Dean of College of Liberal Art in the same university. In addition to her duties as President of Sookmyung Women’s University, she is a consultant to the Constitutional Court of Korea and the Vice-President of Korean Association of Private University President since 2013.

President Sun-Uk Kim is the 14th president of Ewha Womans University, since taking office in August 2010, and has been Professor in the School of Law at that same university since 1995. She is a legal scholar holding an LL.D. in Administrative Law from the University of Konstanz, as well as an LLM. And LL.B. from Ewha Womans University, and has published extensively on a number of topics, including gender equality, South Korea's legal system, human rights, and public policy. From 2005-2007 President Kim served as the first female Minister of Government Legislation in Korea, and has held numerous appointments in law and policy associations, including the Committee of Legal Education of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2008-2010), and the Policy Consultation Committee of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (2007-2009). She is the immediate past President of the Korean Association of Gender and Law (2008-2009) and past Vice-President of the Korean Public Law Association (2003-2004). In addition to her duties as President of Ewha, President Kim is the Chair of the Alumninetzwerk Deutschland-Korea (ADeKo) as well as a member of the Consultation Committee of the Constitutional Court of Korea. President Kim was also a Visiting Scholar at the Cornell East Asia Program in the Fall of 2004.

Prof. Dr Narlı is a full professor of Political Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Bahcesehir University. Currently, she is teaching in the Sociology Department she founded in 2005.

Nilufer Narli holds a degree in Education with a major in Philosophy and minor in Sociology; and MSc in Humanities with a major in Logic, the Philosophy of Science and Philosophy from Middle Eastern Technical University, Ankara. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences with a major in Political Sociology from the School of Comparative Social Sciences, University Sains Malaysia. Prof. Narli was selected as an Eisenhower Fellow from Turkey in 1993.

Narli’s topics of research and teaching interest include: civil-military relations and military and good governance in Turkey, Islamist movements in Southeast Asia and Middle East, political participation of Muslim women, irregular migration in the Balkans, and political memory.

Narli has undertaken several research projects. The most recent one is the TUBITAK-funded research on “political memory in Turkey” (beginning in December 2012). One of the important applied sociology projects (2007-2009) was the social impact of computer teaching and learning project, sponsored by Microsoft, UNDP and the Youth for Habitat as the NGP partner of the project. Narli took part in a research project, “Governance and the Military: Perspectives for Change in Turkey” (2004-2006). The project was coordinated and funded by the Centre for European Security Studies (CESS) in Holland. She directed the project “Political Islam in Turkey”, which was funded by the Ford Foundation in 1992.