Beken Saatçioğlu is a faculty member at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, MEF University, Istanbul. She received her B.A. in International Relations from Marmara University, Turkey (2000). She holds an M.A. (2003) and a Ph.D. (2009) in International Relations/Political Science from the University of Virginia. Dr. Saatçioğlu has been a post-doctoral fellow at the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin)’s Kolleg-Forschergruppe (KFG) Research College “The Transformative Power of Europe” (2009-2010) and the Institute for European Integration Research (EIF) in Vienna (2010-2011).

Before joining MEF University in 2014, she taught courses at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Kemerburgaz University, Istanbul Bilgi University and the University of Virginia. Her research interests include European Union conditionality and enlargement, Europeanization, democratization, European integration, Turkey–EU relations and Turkish politics. Her work has been published in international edited volumes as well as academic journals including South European Society and Politics, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, Democratization, Turkish Studies, Uluslararası İlişkiler (Journal of International Relations) and Insight Turkey.