Iulia-Alexandra Oprea is a researcher and assistant professor at UMFST (GE Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures) specialized in European and Turkish contemporary history and politics with experience in teaching, journalism and youth work. She holds a PhD from Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis on identity and alterity in contemporary Turkey. Iulia is a former CATS (Centre for Applied Turkey Studies) fellow at SWP (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik), in Berlin, Germany, where she researched Turkish Islamic narratives and assessed the potential role of institutionalized Turkish-Islam in preventing/countering violent extremism in Germany, and TEFF (Turkey Europe Future Forum) fellow, a program which brings together young Turkish and European leaders from all sectors to engage in intensive dialogue on topical social and political issues. She worked on a project focusing on the political situation in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina at S. Pio V

Institute of Political Studies in Rome, Italy and collaborated with the journal Foreign Policy Romania. In addition to the fieldwork she conducted in Turkey and Germany as part of her PhD studies and fellowships, Iulia is also the winner of a European Forum Alpbach scholarship in Austria, where she later returned and worked as seminar assistant during the Forum. Her current interests are: identity building processes, religious diplomacy, political violence, interfaith dialogue, Turkish history and politics, Balkan and Middle Eastern studies. She speaks Romanian, Hungarian, English, Italian, Turkish and beginner German and French.

Academia profile: https://uniroma1.academia.edu/IuliaOprea