Leyla Kayhan Elbirlik holds an A.M. degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University (History and Middle Eastern Studies, 2005 and 2013). Dr. Elbirlik’s most recent publications include “The Emotional Bond between Early Modern Children and Parents: A Case Study of Sünbülzade's 'Ideal' Child” in Children and Childhood in the Ottoman Empire (14th-20th Century), Edinburgh University Press 2021 (eds. Fruma Zachs, Gülay Yılmaz); “Family and Neighborhood Lives” in Early Modern Istanbul (Brill Companion Series on Early Modern Cities), Brill (eds. Çiğdem Kafescioğlu and Shirine Hamadeh, 2022). Dr. Elbirlik collaborated in the EU Horizon 2020 project entitled PLOTINA during 2016-2020 at Özyeğin University. She is on the executive board of AMECYS (Association for Middle Eastern Childhood and Youth Studies), SES Equality and Solidarity Association, and a member of MESA (Middle East Studies Association), AHA (American Historical Association) and Global Relations Forum. Dr. Elbirlik received an ARIT-NEH grant in 2020 and a senior fellowship from Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) during the academic year 2021-2022 in support of her monograph which traces the history of the marital bond and its dissolution between the late eighteenth and early twentieth-century Ottoman Istanbul. She is primarily concerned with the role of the court with regard to family. She focuses on exploring the actions of women in court, in their patterns of registering marriage and divorce-related settlements to protect their rights in the public sphere. Having previously taught at Boğaziçi University, Dr. Elbirlik is currently a faculty member at Özyeğin University’s Sustainability Platform.