Prof. Dr. Hacer Topaktaş Üstüner graduated from the Department of History Teaching, Education Faculty of Fatih, Karadeniz Technical University. She completed her MA at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, of the same university, and her PhD at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Hacettepe University. She has been supported by scholarships and awards from the Government of Poland, TÜBİTAK, YÖK, TTK, DAAD, and TÜBA. She has worked as a researcher at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, University of Warsaw, University of Bonn, University College London, and Moscow University of Economics (HSE). She currently serves as the Head of the Department of Polish Language and Literature, and the Head of the Department of Slavic Languages ​​and Literatures at the Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University. She works on diplomatic history, political history, Eastern European history. She was awarded the TEÇEP Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences in the field of Social Sciences, the GEBİP Award of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, the First Degree Rector's Individual Award of the Wrocław Medical University, the Explorers Club “Benedykt Polak Award” in the Foreign Researcher Category, and the best Polish history book in a foreign language award by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for her book “Polonezköy 180 Years of History” in 2023. She is a member of the TÜBA Young Academy and a member of the Scientific Board of the Atatürk Research Center.