Al-Biruni Award Presented at the 5th Sociology Days Student Research Symposium

The 5th Sociology Days Student Research Symposium, organized by the Department of Sociology at Ibn Haldun University, was held at the University between 8–10 May 2026.

The symposium, which attracted broad participation, also hosted the presentation of the Al-Biruni Award, granted to encourage outstanding undergraduate theses written within the Department of Sociology at Ibn Haldun University. The award was presented during the closing ceremony of the symposium on Sunday, 10 May.

Al-Biruni Award Goes to Aysha Shahalabath

The Al-Biruni Award, presented in the category of best undergraduate thesis, was awarded to Aysha Shahalabath for her undergraduate thesis completed under the supervision of Asst. Prof. Tesnim Khriji. Selected among the undergraduate theses submitted in 2025, Shahalabath received the award for her thesis titled “Disciplined Bodies, Disciplined Minds: A Critical Inquiry into the Wellness Industry”. The award was presented to Shahalabath by Prof. Dr. Mücahit Bilici, Professor at CUNY John Jay College and Ibn Haldun University.

The evaluation committee consisted of Dr. Nesibe Demir (Medipol University & Ibn Haldun University), Asst. Prof. Mehmet Ali Başak (Ibn Haldun University), and Dr. Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy (Ibn Haldun University). Within the scope of the Al-Biruni Award, the recipient of the best undergraduate thesis was granted a prize of 20,000 TL.

Thesis Abstract

This study critically examines the wellness and fitness industry as a site of neoliberal governance, where practices of self-care and well-being function not merely as personal choices but also as disciplinary mechanisms. Against the backdrop of a rapidly expanding global wellness economy and rising mental health struggles, the study interrogates the ideological role of wellness discourse in shaping selfhood, responsibilizing distress, and commodifying emotional life.

Drawing on the theoretical insights of Michel Foucault and Byung-Chul Han, alongside critical perspectives from William Davies and Eva Illouz, the research explores how the pursuit of happiness and fitness is embedded in broader regimes of biopower, psychopolitics, and emotional capitalism. These frameworks reveal how individuals are not only encouraged but also compelled to continuously monitor, optimize, and brand themselves under the guise of wellness. In this process, distress is transformed into a private issue of mindset rather than understood as a symptom of structural conditions.

The study combines conceptual critique with a thematic analysis of semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with young adults engaged in fitness routines. Through these interviews, the research explores how participants internalize wellness norms through self-surveillance, quantification, and consumption, treating the body and emotions as measurable and improvable assets. Their lived experiences reveal the moral pressure to achieve wellness as both a duty and an identity, while obscuring the systemic causes of burnout, anxiety, and alienation.

The study concludes that the wellness industry, while often appearing benign or empowering, operates as a subtle apparatus of neoliberal control. It disciplines both bodies and minds by turning emotional well-being into a marketable commodity and depoliticizing distress through a process of hyper-individualism. By uncovering the hidden mechanisms of power within wellness culture, this research calls for a re-politicization of mental health and a collective reimagining of well-being as a public and structural concern rather than a privatized responsibility.