Publications

This monograph traces the shifting paradigm of the teaching profession in Turkey through the lens of neoliberal structural adjustments. It investigates how economic rationalities have reshaped the professional identity and societal standing of teachers over three decades of political transformation, interrogating the degradation of professional autonomy and the commodification of pedagogical labor.

This article examines how globally rising new authoritarianism intervenes in academic life through a case study, Boğaziçi University in Turkey. Drawing on in-depth interviews, campus observations, and documentary sources, it also critiques the limitations of the Academic Freedom Index in capturing context-specific threats to academic freedom. The study proposes an alternative framework that includes political participation and horizontal governance as core dimensions. The article argues that the emerging resistance to the violation of academic freedom not only challenges authoritarian tendencies and interventions but also actively redefines academic freedom.

This paper examines an early childhood education institution, Quran kindergartens, introduced by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey in the early 2000s. The decision to make these kindergartens public, which were previously operated solely by private entities and religious sects, represented a significant development for the country. The AKP established Turkey's first public Islamic kindergartens as part of its "raising a new pious generation" policy, aiming to build its cultural hegemony. The article investigates the emergence of these public Islamic kindergartens and analyzes how they shape the concept of the "Muslim child" through their educational practices. It also explores their contribution to the changing role of mosques in Turkey. The study is based on qualitative research, including interviews with educators and parents.

This paper conceptualises rising authoritarianism in Turkey under the conservative ruling party, AKP, and its Sunni-Islamist educational policies. It scrutinises the Islamisation of early childhood and primary-secondary school education during the recent authoritarian turn. The discourse of ‘raising a religious generation’ entails reframing the Turkish secular education system into a Sunni Islam model. The article first situates early childhood, primary, and secondary school policies and discusses five major policy alterations during the contemporary authoritarianism of the AKP: restructured Preacher’s Schools (Imam-Hatip Schools), the 4+4+4 system, cooperation with Islamic sects, implementation of values education, and public Islamic kindergartens.

This study is aimed at a deep investigation on the effects of 1980 coup d’etat in Turkey on Turkish society and the novels that have taken this military coup as the main plot. While investigating this subject, the reflection of social and political progresses into literature and the relationship between literature and society have become the focus points.. Post and pre-coup era are investigated in relation with the social effects of the 1980 coup d’etat. Four novels by five female novelists are chosen in order to study on the relationship between social changes and novels. During the selection of the novels, the representation of different social groups has been considered. The chosen novels are enlisted below: Hiçbiryere Dönüş, Oya Baydar, Hayır..., Adalet Ağaoğlu, Uçurtmayı Vurmasınlar, Feride Çiçekoğlu, Kuş Diline Öykünen, Ayşegül Devecioğlu. The main topics that the novels focus on are political immigration, prisons during the 1980 coup d’etat, universities, political organizations, torture performed by govermental entities, the political participation of working class and leftist political organizations, social changes after 1980 coup, the place of women activists in political organizations. The arguments proposed by the novelists deal with different perspectives are compared with the historical data from 1980 coup d’etat era.

The issue of abortion started to be perceived as a public health problem during the late Ottoman era and early Republican Turkey by the state and committing an abortion was accepted as a crime that was committed against the whole society. This paper states that the criminalization of abortion starting from late Ottoman era as an intervention on reproductivity is an act on female body since it implied the assignment of a duty on women as child raisers and reduces female identity into motherhood. Hence, this state interference on female body paved the way for women’s inferior position subjected to only being mothers by eulogizing the duty of child bearing. In this paper, the concept of abortion is studied through legal changes during the late Ottoman and early Republican era by the edicts and legal documents of the term indicating the applications and events related to abortion. The policies in early Republican Turkey went hand in hand with the applications of the general frame work of health policies of late Ottoman era which were a part of the reform movements starting in late 18th century.