Assoc. Prof. Dr. Halim Baş completed his undergraduate education in 2012 at the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Kocaeli University. He completed his master’s degree in 2016 at the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Faculty of Economics, Istanbul University. In the same year, he began his doctoral studies in the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations at the Faculty of Economics, Istanbul University and graduated in 2020. Between 2015 and 2022, he taught courses at the Vocational School of Social Sciences at Istanbul Medipol University. He is currently working at the Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations, Faculty of Economics, Marmara University. Baş has worked as a researcher in numerous national projects and has published articles in scientific journals indexed in national and international databases in the fields of social policy, youth, international students, skilled labor, and brain drain. He has a high level of proficiency in English.

https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/14878

Dr. A. Sena Sezgin is a faculty member and deputy department chair in the Psychology Department, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Marmara University. She earned her bachelor’s degree with honors from Istanbul Bilgi University in 2008; completed her master’s degree under Prof. Dr. Öğet Öktem-Tanör with a thesis on executive functions and willpower; and earned her PhD under Prof. Dr. Sevim Cesur at Istanbul University, with the dissertation titled “Parent’s Perception of Having a ‘Gifted’ Child: Labeling.” In 2015, she was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge. Since 2006, she has served as a mentor and psychologist at Kalem Foundation Schools. She has also served as a board member, supervisor, and psychologist at Kalem Foundation Schools; as a Coordination Board Member of the Kalem Journal of Education and Human Sciences; and as a scientific editor and Coordination Board Member at Kalem Foundation Publications and Kalem Academy Teacher Training Institute. Her main research areas include giftedness perception and policies, labeling, narcissism and narcissism culture, school psychology, willpower, and executive functions.

https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/14628/egitim

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatma Özge Ünsal graduated in 2006 from the Preschool Teaching and Child Development Department at Marmara University. In the same year, she began her master’s studies in the Department of Preschool Education at Marmara University, focusing her research on the development of children’s social skills and behavioral problems. She completed her doctoral degree with research examining the effects of a psychological resilience program for preschool children on social skills and problem behaviors. The dissertation writing phase was carried out at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Modena, Italy. Between 2012 and 2016, she served as program coordinator at the Preschool Education Application Unit of the Atatürk Faculty of Education at Marmara University. She currently works in the Preschool Education Department within the Department of Basic Education at Marmara University. Her research areas include preschool children’s social skills, problem behaviors, psychological resilience, emotion regulation, early childhood education programs, and children’s literature.

https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/ozge.unsal

Prof. Asil Özdoğru is a faculty member in the Psychology Department, Chair of the Developmental Psychology Division. He completed his dual bachelor’s degrees in Guidance and Psychological Counseling and Psychology at Boğaziçi University in 2003. He earned his master’s degree in 2005 and his doctorate in 2010 in Educational Psychology from the State University of New York at Albany. Between 2003 and 2012, he worked in various institutions in the United States as a research assistant, lecturer, and research specialist. From 2013 to 2023, he served as a faculty member and department chair in the English Psychology Department at Üsküdar University and held the position of vice dean at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. His academic interests include child development, adult education, applied psychology, and team science.

https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/15236

Dr. Muzaffer Şenel is a visiting researcher at the Center of Population and Social Policy, Marmara University. He works in the fields of world order, security studies, European studies, and comparative foreign policy, with a particular focus on Europe’s foreign policy toward the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region politics and international relations, Turkey’s foreign policy, world order, the Cyprus issue, and higher education. Dr. Şenel has lectured at various universities, including Istanbul Kültür University, Istanbul 29 Mayıs University, Ankara Medipol University, Marmara University, Kocaeli University, and Istanbul Şehir University. He has conducted research in several countries, including the United Kingdom (Oxford University, Centre for Islamic Studies), Hungary (Teleki László Institute, now the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade), Poland (Jagiellonian University, European Studies Center), Armenia (American University of Armenia, Political Science and International Relations), and the United States (SUNY Binghamton University, Department of Political Science). His research has been supported by grants from Jean Monnet, TÜBİTAK, EuroMeSCo, the Black Sea Trust, and the Hrant Dink Foundation. He currently serves as a visiting researcher at SUNY Binghamton University’s Department of Political Science. Dr. Şenel also produced a six-episode documentary series titled “Forgotten Heritage: Cyprus Foundations” for TRT TV. Together with Sadık Ünay, he edited the book Global Orders and Civilizations: Perspectives from History, Philosophy and International Relations (Nova Science Publications, New York, 2009); and with Mesut Özcan, he co-edited Modernity and the World Order(s) (Küre Publications, Istanbul, 2010). He is a member of the Turkish Council on Foreign Relations, the American Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, WOCMES, UCLA CMED, the Association for Accreditation and Rating in the Social, Humanitarian and Fundamental Sciences, Romania’s Aspen Institute, and the Black Sea Trust.

Prof. Olga Tofaniuk is a visiting researcher at the Center of Population and Social Poicy, Marmara University. She graduated in 2002 from the National Aerospace University “KhAI” (Ukraine), Faculty of Economics and Management, with a Master’s degree in Finance. In 2011, she completed her PhD in Economics titled “Overcoming Problem Regions’ Depression by Reducing Regional Development Disproportions.” She currently works as a lecturer at KhAI, Faculty of Software Engineering and Business, Chair of Management and Business Administration. She has authored more than 70 scientific publications, including 6 monographs and 54 journal articles.

She conducted research at the Chair of Public Finance, University of Würzburg (Germany) in 2015 on “The Fiscal Equalization System in Germany and Ukraine,” and between 2022–2025 on “Demographic Change and the Ukrainian Pension System – A Quantitative Analysis” and “The Ukrainian Economic Reconstruction after the War – A Simulation Analysis.” She presented her findings at the Workshop of the Population and Social Policies Research Center, Marmara University, titled “A Simulation Study of Aging and Pensions in Ukraine” (November 13, 2024).

Main interests: European integration; demographic transition economics; tax and pension reform simulation models.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8832-1381

Dr. Berna Ekal Şimşek is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at Marmara University. After completing her undergraduate and master’s degrees in the Department of Sociology at Boğaziçi University, she earned her PhD in 2015 from the Department of Social Anthropology and Ethnology at EHESS–Paris. Between 2016 and 2018, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University. From 2018 to 2025, she served in the Departments of Social Work and Sociology at Istanbul Altınbaş University. Her academic interests include women’s studies, family and kinship, institutional anthropology, and political anthropology.

https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/berna.ekal

Müberra Aksu graduated with honors from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, Department of Sociology, and completed a minor in Psychology. She is currently a master’s student in Sociology at Marmara University. Her research interests include family, demography, social policy, life satisfaction, and media sociology.

Hilal Ceylan graduated from the Department of Sociology at Marmara University in 2019 and completed a minor in Guidance and Psychological Counseling. She received her master’s degree from Marmara University in 2024 with her thesis titled “The Effect of Civil Society Participation on Life Satisfaction.” She is currently continuing her doctoral coursework at the same university.