M. Hakan Yavuz is Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Utah. His wide-ranging scholarly work explores the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the complex trajectories of nation-state formation that followed, with particular attention to the Middle East and the Balkans. He has published extensively on Islamic social and political movements, the evolution and contestation of secularism, and the dynamics of ethnic conflict and genocide. His research also examines questions of memory, identity, and the public sphere, offering a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective on how historical legacies and ideological struggles continue to shape contemporary politics.