Elektra Kostopoulou received both her B.A. degree (2001) in History and Archaeology (with a major in Turkish and Balkan History and a minor in Greek Philology) and her an M.A. degree (2004) in Turkish and Balkan history from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Her M.A. thesis on the island of Leros at the end of the Ottoman era was published in Greek as a monograph entitled The Island of Leros as an Ottoman Province: History through the Books of the Local Elders (Athens: 2005). Elektra Kostopoulou received her Ph.D. degree in Ottoman History from Bogazici University, Istanbul, in 2009. Her doctoral dissertation on "The 'Muslim Millet' of Autonomous Crete" won the University's Award on Academic Excellence in Research. The dissertation examines the anguished transformation of the Eastern Mediterranean during the age of late modernity, through the examination of a focused case study: the Muslim citizens of Autonomous Crete. Elektra Kostopoulou has taught (2006-10) at the Department of History, Bilgi University, Istanbul, as teaching assistant, instructor, and assistant professor.