Büşra Yalçınöz Uçan from the Department of Clinical Psychology at Bogazici University, Turkey arrived in Guelph this month to spend the 2017-2018 academic year at the CSSLRV. Her visit is funded by the Bogazici University Almuni Organization (BUMED) which is a fellowship awarded for the purpose of supporting international academic research on social sciences. A PhD candidate, Yalçınöz Uçan’s dissertation is entitled “Exploring Self-Narratives of Women Survivors of Abuse: Stories of Empowerment and Recovery in the Context of Turkey”. In her research, she addresses questions about the initiation of disengagement process from abusive relationships, women’s personal experiences after physical separation, and their processes of empowerment and psychological recovery. Yalçınöz Uçan completed her MA in clinical psychology at Istanbul Bilgi University in 2011. For three years, starting from 2009, she worked as a research assistant in a nation-wide project funded by the national scientific research council of Turkey (TUBITAK), entitled “Social and Developmental Construction of Masculinity in Turkey”. Since 2011, she worked as a psychotherapist at various psychological counselling centers in Istanbul. She has also worked at a well-known NGO in Turkey, Mor Cati Women’s Shelter Foundation since 2013 and is currently a member of the European Network on Gender and Violence (ENGV). She will continue to work on her dissertation study at the CSSLRV as a visiting PhD student, from October 2017 to October 2018. Working with CSSLRV Director Myrna Dawson, Yalçınöz Uçan will participate in a variety of CSSLRV activities, including the upcoming Canadian Domestic Homicide Prevention Conference next month that has been organized by the initiative’s Co-Directors, Dr. Dawson and Dr. Peter Jaffe, Western University.