Ozum Yesiltas is an Associate Professor of Political Science. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from Florida International University in 2014. She holds a B.A. in Sociology, and a M.S. in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Dr. Yesiltas teaches courses broadly in International Relations Theory, American Foreign Policy, International Human Rights, Peace and Conflict Studies, and Gender and Identity Politics in the Middle East. Her research interests involve ethnic conflict and democratization in the Middle East with a particular focus on the Kurdish Question. She has done extensive field research in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria since 2011 and published her work in academic journals including Studies of Transition States and Societies and Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies. Her book titled Rethinking State-Non-State Alliances: Change and Continuity in the Us-Kurdish Relationship has recently been published by Lexington Books, Kurdish Societies, Politics and International Relations Series. She is currently working on a project that investigates the relationship between feminism and nationalism in Afghan and Kurdish women’s movements from a comparative perspective.