Istanbul Project Director
Mary D’Ambrosio
Mary D’Ambrosio, the founding editor of Big World Magazine, is an assistant professor of journalism at Central Connecticut State University. She previously taught at New York University and Columbia University. A writer specializing in international issues, she has reported from the U.K., Turkey, Italy and Latin America. She was an editor at Global Finance magazine in New York, a reporter for the Associated Press in Venezuela and a correspondent and book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Her work has also appeared in Islands, Working Woman, Newsday and the Miami Herald. She holds a B.S. in magazine journalism from Syracuse University, and an MSc in economic history from the London School of Economics. She led ieiMedia’s magazine program in Urbino, Italy in 2010, and has directed the Istanbul program since 2011.
Professor of International Reporting
Suzy Hansen
Suzy Hansen is a freelance writer who has lived in Istanbul for four years. She has written for The Atlantic, The New Republic, Bloomberg Businessweek, GQ, The New York Times, and many other publications. In 2007, she was the recipient of an Institute of Current World Affairs writing fellowship. Before moving to Istanbul, she was an editor at the New York Observer and Salon.
Multimedia Instructor
Scot Tucker
Scot Tucker has been teaching photojournalism at San Francisco State University since 2006. He previously worked as a staff photographer and picture editor at the Napa Valley Register, San Mateo County Times, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate.com and the Associated Press. Scot also serves as the director of photography at SFBay.ca. An alumnus of San Francisco State, he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 2000 and a master’s degree in instructional design in 2010.
Program Organizer
Leyla Bektaş
Leyla Bektas is a research assistant in the Department of New Media at Bahçeşehir University. She had double major in the Department of Journalism and the Department of Teaching Computer and Educational Technology at Anadolu University in Eskişehir. Her master’s thesis is about urban transformation and alienation. She is continuing her PhD in Communicaion Science at Hacettepe University.