Mustafa Tuna received his Ph.D. from the History Department of Princeton University, New Jersey in 2009 and is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University, North Carolina, with a secondary appointment in History. His research focuses on social and cultural change among the Muslim communities of Central Eurasia, especially the Volga-Urals region and modern Turkey, since the early nineteenth century. He is particularly interested in identifying the often intertwined roles of Islam, social networks, state or elite interventions, infrastructural changes, and the globalization of European modernity in transforming Muslim communities. His research and analysis crosses the boundaries between Eurasian and Middle Eastern studies. He has received numerous research awards and scholarships including a Fulbright Scholarship, which allowed him to continue his graduate studies in America following a B.A. in International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, a Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion Award, a Princeton University Russian Studies Fellowship, and a Eurasia Program of the Social Science Research Council Award.