Acosta-Alzuru (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is professor in the college of journalism and mass communication at the University of Georgia (USA). Her scholarship focuses on the links between media, culture and society with a focus on melodramatic serialized genres, in particular telenovelas and Turkish dramas. She is the author of four books and multiple academic articles. Her research and teaching have earned her many awards, including the Scripps Howard Foundation Journalism and Mass Communication Teacher of the Year for the United States. In the last six years, her research has taken her repeatedly to Istanbul as she examines the tensions between the domestic and global markets for Turkish dramas.