Ayşe Betül Çelik received her Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2002 and is a full Professor at Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey. She teaches political science and conflict resolution, with a research focus on ethnic conflict, reconciliation, dialogue, forced migration, peace processes, and gender and peacebuilding. She is a principal researcher on a European Research Council advanced grant transferred to UKRI (PEACERETURN) and an EU Horizon project (EXPRESS). She has published several articles and co-authored a book on Turkey’s Kurdish question, Kurdish forced migration, and the role of NGOs in the conflict. She is one of the founders of the Turkey Antenna of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network and Sabancı University’s Gender and Women’s Studies Center for Excellence (SU Gender). She is an honorary faculty member in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.

Prof. Çelik received the “Ufficiale dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia” (Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy), the highest honor conferred by the President of the Italian Republic, in 2021, for her work in conflict resolution and gender. She is also the recipient of the 20th Kadir Has Outstanding Achievement Award, themed “Global Peace and Justice in Times of Conflict and Chaos,” and Sabancı University’s Societal Impact Award in 2025.

Contact Information:

Sabancı University

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Office: FASS 2038

Phone: +90 216 483 9298

e-mail: bcelik@sabanciuniv.edu