Idil Elveris, PHD graduated from Istanbul University School of Law in 1996. She obtained her LLM in 1998 from Tulane University. As a legal consultant and attorney, she practiced in jurisdictions such as New York, Kosovo, Britain and Istanbul. In 2003, she joined Istanbul Bilgi University and pioneered legal clinics in Turkey and established a pro bono clearing house at Istanbul Bilgi University. She obtained her PHD in 2012 from Istanbul Bilgi University School of Political Science. Her areas of interest and teaching include legal profession; law and politics; access to justice and corrections. She is a certified mediator and currently a visiting scholar at LSE European Institute.
LOCAL RESEARCHERS - TURKEY
Seda Kalem graduated from Bosphorus University Department of Sociology in 2000 (Istanbul). In 2003, she got her MA degree from the The New School For Social Research Department of Sociology (NY). In 2010, her PhD thesis titled Contested Meanings- Imagined Practices: Law at the Intersection of Mediation and Legal Profession was awarded “The Albert Salomon Memorial Award in Sociology” by the Graduate Faculty Department of Sociology. Since 2006, she has been teaching as an Assistant Professor at the Law Faculty of Istanbul Bilgi University. Her courses include Sociology of Law, Law and Society, Law and Politics, Access to Justice: Research and Policy and Social Transformations and Legal Profession, Social Science Research Methods in Legal Research. Kalem has also been an expert researcher at Istanbul Bilgi University Human Rights Law Research Center where she has conducted field studies on courts in Turkey particularly in reference to issues such as legal aid, lay experiences with the legal system, legal consciousness and access to justice. Kalem is the author and co-author of several books and articles on the judicial system in Turkey. Recently she has been studying on politics of the legal profession in Turkey, with a particular focus on Istanbul Bar Association, as well as on women judges from a feminist epistemological and methodological standpoint.