Erdem Ilter is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles, specializing in the late Ottoman Empire and Modern Middle Eastern History. Ilter's dissertation is an in-depth examination of the Anatolian General Inspectorate, an Ottoman administrative institution established in 1895 to implement reforms in the Ottoman East. Through this administrative unit, Ilter is analyzing the politicization of violence, inter-communal conflicts, state-building processes, and colonialism in the Middle East. Erdem Ilter has earned an M.A. in History from Binghamton University.