Basak Z. Alpan is an Associate Professor and a Lecturer in European Politics and Political Sociology at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham with her research on the Turkish discourses on 'Europe' in the post-1999 period. She conducts research and extensively writes on the European integration, discourse theory, poststructuralism, Turkish-EU Relations and football and identity. Some recent articles by Alpan are, 'Turkey and the Balkans: bringing the Europeanisation/de-Europeanisation nexus into question' (with E. Öztürk) which appeared in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies (2022) and 'The Impact of Populism on Turkey-EU Relations' in International Spectator (2019).

Alpan worked in many EU-funded projects as a researcher, including FREE (Football Research in an Enlarged Europe), and FEUTURE (the Future of Turkey-EU Relations). She is currently the Coordinator of the JM Network LEAP ('Linking to Europe at the Periphery'). Afrim Hoti is Full Professor at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Prishtina. He served at different institutions in Kosovo like Prime Minister's Office, Special Chamber of the Kosovo Supreme Court, Kosovo Parliament as well as many international organizations like EAR, USAID, UNDP and GIZ. He held series of lectures and seminars in many EU and Turkish universities and coordinated EU projects under Jean Monnet Network, Erasmus plus and so on. Prof. Hoti has published a book, monographies and many articles in various international academic journals.