Dr. Arzu Ünal is a social anthropologist specializing in gender studies, migration, Muslim identity, and material culture. She holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Yeditepe University, an MA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University, and a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam, which she completed in 2013. Dr. Ünal has taught at Boğaziçi University in the Sociology Department and at Sabancı University in the Cultural Studies Program. Her post-doctoral research has contributed to two different ERC-funded projects: "Problematizing 'Muslim Marriages': Ambiguities and Contestations" and “Staging National Abjection: Theatre and Politics in Turkey and Its Diasporas.” Her publications cover a range of topics, including Muslim fashion, gender identities, family and parenting, the politics of belonging, and the performative arts. Some of her notable works include Fashioning the Female Muslim Body: From ‘Hiding Beauty’ to ‘Managing Beauty’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) and Undoing Patrilineality: New Maternal Families and the Politics of Naming in Turkey (Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, 2020).