Dilek Akyalçın Kaya
Dilek Akyalçın Kaya obtained her PhD degree in 2013 with a thesis entitled “The Salonican Sabbateans (1845-1912): plural individuals in an urban society in transition” at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her research focuses on urban as well as rural history in the eastern Mediterranean in modern times. She studies more particularly the trajectories of individuals who were the driving force of the economic and social transformations of port cities. She wrote, together with Bilgi Arif Kenber, a book titled Bir Defterin Işığında Selanikli Mustafa Arif Efendi (1852-1941) ve Ailesi (İstanbul: Libra, 2018). She curated an exhibition entitled Oh My Sister! Salonica-Smyrna (1880-1912): Regional Centers, Global Port Cities, 4 October-30 November 2019 (Izmir Havagazı Fabrikası). Recently, she got HORIZON TMA MSCA post-doctoral fellowship with her project entitled At the Crossroads of History, Industry, and Technology: Olive Oil Production in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Late Nineteenth Century (1839-1914) and started to work as researcher at IMS-FORTH in Rethymno-Crete.