Leyla is an Assistant Professor at Istinye University. She holds a Masters degree in TESOL/Applied Linguistics from Boston University and a PhD in English Literature & Rhetoric from SUNY Binghamton. Leyla has worked with SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Form of Education) at the Somali Development Center (SDC) in Boston. She currently resides in Istanbul, Turkey where her research focuses on immigrant narratives (especially that of children and women), postcolonial studies, and the power of storytelling in fostering empathy towards the marginalized. She intends to raise awareness of the immigrant's story and the importance of telling and re-telling these stories especially in a cosmopolitan metropolis like Istanbul, which serves to bridge the cultures of East and West.