Özlem Altıok is a full time lecturer holding a joint appointment with Women's and Gender Studies and International Studies at the University of North Texas. Prior to UNT, she taught at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where she received her Ph.D. in sociology. Dr. Altıok holds a master's degree in public administration from Texas A&M, and a bachelor's degree in international relations from Istanbul Bilgi University. Her research and teaching interests include gender, politics and religion; international development; environmental and community sociology; and social movements. In addition to introductory courses, she has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses at UNT since 2010. Dr. Altıok is a member of Sociologists for Women in Society, the Middle Eastern Studies Association, and EŞİTİZ, a gender equality watch group in Turkey. Her articles have appeared in Contexts, ZMagazine and www.opendemocracy.org.