Esra Cuhadar Gurkaynak's Page

What motivated you to become involved in peace and conflict resolution?

An invitation from a colleague

Please feel free to provide a short bio about yourself (no more than 3 paragraphs)

Esra Cuhadar Gurkaynak, Ph.D.
Dept. Of Political Science, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
esracg@bilkent.edu.tr

Esra Cuhadar Gurkaynak is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Bilkent University, Ankara Turkey. Before joining Bilkent University in Fall 2006, she worked as an Assistant Prof. in the Conflict Analysis and Resolution Program of Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey. Esra received a Ph.D. and M.A in International Relations and an advanced graduate certificate in “Applied Conflict Resolution” from Syracuse University. While at Syracuse University, she worked as an instructor, as a research affiliate at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and as the Program Coordinator of the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts in 2000-2001. She completed a Syracuse University award winning dissertation titled "Evaluating Track Two Diplomacy in Pre-Negotiation" in which she focused on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and peacemaking initiatives. Esra has also done research on several Greek-Turkish peace initiatives and wrote on issues pertaining to the role of third parties in the Cyprus conflict. Besides her research on various third party roles and techniques in conflicts, Esra has also conducted conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation trainings for various groups including a group of Greek and Turkish Cypriot teenagers in 2004 and 2005, and worked with conflict resolution NGOs such as Search for Common Ground and Umut Foundation.

Please list the countries and/or regions in which you have direct and significant expertise

Turkey
Israel/Palestine

What is your current country of residence?

Turkey

What is your current job (and organization) and/or where and what field are you studying?

Assistant Professor at Bilkent University, conflict resolution and political psychology

What is one of your favorite websites in the field? (please provide one answer per box)

http://www.beyondintractability.org

Which are your primary sectoral areas of expertise?

Peacebuilding, Conflict Resolution, Civil Society, Psychosocial

Which are your primary skills areas?

Training, Evaluation, Intervention

What are some of your current areas of research (if any)?

Evaluation of conflict resolution initiatives (in Israel-Palestine and Cyprus)
civil society and peacebuilding

If appropriate feel free to list several of your publications

Esra Çuhadar-Gürkaynak. (2007) “Track Two Diplomacy from a Track One Perspective: Comparing the Perceptions of Turkish and American Diplomats,” International Negotiation, Vol. 12, no. 1.

Esra Çuhadar-Gürkaynak, Bruce Dayton, and Thania Paffenholz. (2007) “Evaluation in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding” In A Handbook of Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Sean Byrne, Dennis J.D. Sandole, Ingrid Sandole-Staroste, and Jessica Senehi (eds.). London and New York: Routledge (forthcoming).

Esra Çuhadar-Gürkaynak and Oya Memişoğlu. (2005) “Varieties of Mediating Activities and their Complementarity in the Cyprus Conflict” Regional Development Dialogue, vol. 26, no. 1, Spring. (United Nations Center for Regional Development).

Esra Çuhadar-Gürkaynak and Binnur Özkeçeci-Taner. (2004) “Decision-Making Process Matters: Lessons Learned from Two Turkish Foreign Policy Cases” Turkish Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, Summer.