Binnaz Toprak is a professor and currently Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bahcesehir University, Istanbul. Her works include the book Islam and Political Development in Turkey, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981, and two recent articles, "Islam and Democracy in Turkey," Turkish Studies, Vol. 6, No.2, June 2005, 167-186, and "Economic Development versus Cultural Transformation: Projects of Modernity in Japan and Turkey," New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 35, Fall, 2006, 85-128. She has also co-authored books in Turkish with Ali Çarkoğlu, including Türkiye'de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Religion, Society and Politics in Turkey), İstanbul: TESEV Yayınları, 2000; and Değişen Türkiye'de Din, Toplum ve Siyaset (Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey), TESEV Yayınları, 2006, translated into and English and published by TESEV, 2007, under the title Religion, Society and Politics in a Changing Turkey.