She received her Ph.D. in Communication and Culture and Folklore and Ethnomusicology (double major) from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2010. She earned an M.A. in Folklore from Indiana University in 2004. She received a B.A. and an M.A. in Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey. She is currently teaching advertising, consumer culture and interpersonal communication and her research interests are anthropology of media, culture industries, advertising, consumerism, globalization and nationalism in contemporary Turkey.