Honors Program

Dr. Oya Dursun-Özkanca (University of Texas at Austin, Ph.D.) is a College Professor of International Studies (Endowed Chair), Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Honors Program and the International Studies Minor at Elizabethtown College, PA.

In Fall 2021, she served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, working on her next book manuscript on the Eastern Mediterranean regional balance of power. Her research interests include Turkish foreign policy, transatlantic security, European Union, Eastern Mediterranean, South East Europe, and peace operations.

She is the author of two books: Turkey–West Relations: The Politics of Intra-alliance Opposition, published by Cambridge University Press in November 2019, and The Nexus Between Security Sector Reform/Governance and Sustainable Development Goal-16: An Examination of Conceptual Linkages and Policy Recommendations, published as part of the SSR Papers flagship series of the Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance (DCAF) by Ubiquity Press in May 2021. The Turkish translation of her Turkey–West Relations book, Türkiye–Batı İlişkileri: İttifak İçi Muhalefet Siyaseti, was published by Koç University Press in 2023.

She is also the editor of two books – The European Union as an Actor in Security Sector Reform (Routledge, 2014) and External Interventions in Civil Wars (co-edited with Stefan Wolff, Routledge, 2014) – as well as numerous scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals, such as International Affairs, Turkish Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, Civil Wars, European Security, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, French Politics, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies.

She served as a Visiting Fellow of Research on South Eastern Europe (LSEE) at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2013, and has received grants and fellowships from Georgetown University, the London School of Economics, the European Commission (multiple grants), the American Political Science Association (APSA), the University of Texas at Austin (multiple fellowships), Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the European Union Studies Association, the Mellon Foundation (multiple grants), and Elizabethtown College (multiple grants).

She is the inaugural recipient of the Kreider Prize for Teaching Excellence at Elizabethtown College (2015); the recipient of the Richard Crocker Outstanding Service to Students Award (2018, 2020); the Ranck Prize for Research Excellence (2022); the Outstanding Honors Professor Award (2025) at Elizabethtown College; and the Honors Professional of the Year Award in the Administrator category (2025) from the Northeast Regional Honors Council.

Jean-Paul Benowitz is Director of Public Heritage Studies and Director of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships in the School of Arts and Humanities where he has served on the faculty since 1993.

His scholarship spans three interconnected fields: the history of the Anabaptist-Pietist tradition and the Historic Peace Churches of the mid-Atlantic region; the political history of the twentieth-century United States, with particular emphasis on presidential studies and presidential biography; and the theory and practice of place-based and community-engaged learning in higher education. He served as Scholar in Residence at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.

He is the author and co-author of several books, including Elizabethtown College (Arcadia Publishing, 2014) and Elizabethtown (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), as well as his most recent book, Sarah Tyson Rorer: The Pure Food Movement and Mount Gretna's Rorer Hall of Cookery (Mount Gretna Area Historical Society / Lebanon County Historical Society, 2026). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Pennsylvania History, Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage, Pennsylvania Folklife, the Mennonite Historical Bulletin, and Honors in Practice, among others. He is the editor of the NCHC Celebratory Monograph Festschrift: The 50th Anniversary of Place as Text (2026) and has authored chapters in monographs published by the National Collegiate Honors Council on Place as Text® and City as Text® pedagogies. In 2025, he produced, directed, and wrote the documentary film The Prospect for Freedom: W. Miller Barbour's Human Rights Journey, an official selection at the Hollywood International Indie Film Festival (December 2026), with public screenings hosted by the Governor's Advisory Commission on African American Affairs in the Office of Governor Josh Shapiro, the Greater Harrisburg Area NAACP, and the Popel Shaw Center for Race and Ethnicity at Dickinson College.

He serves on national committees of the National Collegiate Honors Council and the National Association of Fellowship Advisors, and has presented scholarship at conferences of both organizations. His work in the Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships has supported students competing for the Rhodes, Goldwater, Fulbright, and Gilman programs.

He is the recipient of the Smedley Award from the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County, given to an educator who has shown extraordinary support for historic preservation, and received the Peace Prize from the Rockland Fellowship of Reconciliation. He has also been recognized with awards for his mentoring of Emergent Scholars and Stamps Scholars. He teaches courses in Elizabethtown College's Honors Program on American political history, regional and local history, historic preservation, genealogy and public history, and leadership theory and personal narrative.

Luke Mackey is a graduate of Elizabethtown College with both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He provides administrative support for the Honors Program, Office of Prestigious Scholarships & Fellowships, Stamps Scholars Program, and Momentum Program. In addition, he provides advising support for the Honors Program's students.

Luke supervises Honors Course registrations, reviews documents and requests, maintains and updates Honors student records, processes expenditure reimbursements and stipends, supports program communication, marketing, and event planning, oversees the Honors Center, supervises Student Assistants, and coordinates with the Honors Council. Luke also teaches an Honors First-Year Seminar about politics and religion which explores the intersection of these topics and why they are tough, but important, subjects to discuss.

During the 2023-2024 academic year, Luke recieved the David C. Beidleman Exemplar Staff Award in recognition for his outstanding service and commitment to the College and community.