Eylul Begum Saglam is a first-year PhD student in the Political Science Department at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and a Research Assistant at the European Union Center. Eylul graduated as valedictorian from Middle East Technical University (METU), where she received her B.S. in Political Science and Public Administration with a minor in European Studies. She completed her M.A. in Politics at New York University (NYU) as a Fulbright grantee. Eylul is interested in studying Europe within the context of populism and immigration studies.