Havva Karakas Keles

Havva Karakas Keles is the Associate Director of the European Union Center. She teaches classes in European Studies and serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the MAEUS program. Before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Havva was the Assistant Director of the International Relations Program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. During her tenure at Syracuse, Havva spent more than a decade within the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs where she had various professional roles including Assistant Director of Moynihan European Research Centers and Project Manager for the Atlantis Transatlantic Dual Degree Program in International Security and Development Policy. Havva is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at Syracuse University. She holds a B.A. in translation studies and completed master’s degrees in international relations and political science. Havva conducted multilingual archival work in Europe and the Middle East toward her NSF-supported research on coalition governments, political leadership, foreign policy, and decision-making. At Syracuse University, Havva taught undergraduate courses on European Union, foreign policy, and political leadership, and led a Global Europe Seminar in Strasbourg, France. She speaks Turkish and studied French and German.