Bahar Şahin Fırat studied Sociology and Political Science at the Middle East Technical University, Christian Albrechts Universitaet zu Kiel and Boğaziçi University. She published various articles and research reports on Turkish labor migrants in Germany, internally displaced Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish language rights, urban transformation and social exclusion, and state violence. Currently she is responsible for the Foreign and Security Policy Program at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Istanbul.