Since our founding in 2000, Turkish American Cultural Society of Rhode Island has developed and grown in a positive direction. We’re very proud of the diversity of our staff, and their abilities to contribute their own unique experience and skills to our success. Find out more about our board members below.

A native of Istanbul, Pelin Kadercan (Livia or Dr K as students know her) is a professor of history and government. She studied Modern Europe with an interest on the histories of the relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims in a global context. Her research and teaching interests lie in the broad fields of displacement, war, human/ women’s rights, education and film.
She is currently completing her book on the German and Jewish émigrés who fled Nazi Germany for Turkey. Examining the transnational encounters in music, visual arts, and humanities education, her research explores how the cross-territorial forces in the form of ideas and a real dialogue between multiple actors conditioned the nation-building processes as a dynamic space of decision-making.
Dr. Kadercan completed her Ph.D. in History at the University of Rochester, NY. She has an M.A. degree in International Relations from the European Union Institute of Marmara University, and a B.A. from Bogazici University. 
She acted as a visiting professor at Brown University, and a researcher and organizer at various institutions in the UK, Spain, and Turkey. During the 2012-2013 academic year, she acted as the Executive Director for Academic Affairs at Koc University in Istanbul.
Her experience as a higher education professional in Turkey enabled her to have a comprehensive understanding about a broad range of matters in politics and education in the region. She is interested in creative writing, photography and film. She is currently learning how to play guitar.