Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu is a developmental psychologist by training, a community psychologist by conviction, and a peace psychologist by practice. As an outspoken public scholar, he has produced ground-breaking work on children’s rights, young people’s participation, martyrdom/militarism, for-profit higher education and the decline of universities. He has been writing a weekly column focused on children’s rights, well-being and peace in a daily newspaper in Turkey since 2008.  He was a professor in Istanbul when he was dismissed in 2016 for having signed a peace manifesto. In 2017, he was banned from public service for life. Forced to go in exile, he has held visiting positions in Cairo, Macerata, Brussels and Frankfurt. In 2020, he was awarded the Josephine “Scout” Wollman Fuller Award by Psychologists for Social Responsibility for his work on peace and social justice for children. In 2022, he was awarded the Outstanding Service Award by the Society for Peace Psychology.