A second-generation immigrant, I  grew up in upstate New York and Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating from Reed College, I taught English at a public high school in France, helped produce the Contemporary Istanbul Art Festival, served as a medical interpreter in New York City's public hospitals, and taught Turkish at Cornell University. I earned my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 and became a faculty member at Swarthmore College that same year. I am a Senior Fellow at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and served as Director of Lauder's Europe Regional Program between 2018 - 2020. I live in West Philadelphia and am a jazz enthusiast.