AYSELIN YILDIZ

Prof.Dr. Ayselin YILDIZ is a faculty member in the International Relations department at Istinye University (Istanbul) and Vice Dean for Research at Faculty of Economics, Adm. and Social Sciences. She is also an affiliated scholar at Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc). She has extensive publications, research, projects and consultancy activities in the field of forced displacement and migration studies. She received her Phd in international relations and MSc in European Studies from Middle East Technical University. Prof. Yıldız was the founding director of the EU Research Center at Yaşar University, a position she held for a decade (2005–2015), and subsequently served as the founding head of the UNESCO Chair on International Migration (2016–2023) for a period of seven years. She has also initiated the launch of international relations department at Yasar University in 2010 and was the head of department for two years. She held research fellowships at Wageningen University, University of California Berkeley (PhD fellow), University of Pittsburgh (post-doc) and at SciencesPo-CERI (visiting fellow). In addition to her academic pursuits, she also serves as  the committee member at UNESCO Turkey Management of Social Transformations (MOST) and Migration Group. She is the author of the book The European Union’s Immigration Policy: Managing Migration in Turkey and Morocco, a seminal contribution to the field. Recognized for her expertise in the internationalization of higher education, she serves on the Board of the Groningen Declaration Network.

Beyond her academic endeavors, Prof.Yıldız is the founder of Nefes-Ai, a company focused on developing AI-driven technologies in the field of higher education.