News

Dr. Rahime Arzu ÜNAL, a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been awarded funding under the TÜBİTAK 3005 – Innovative Solutions Research Projects Support Programme in Social Sciences and Humanities for her project titled “Digital Vulnerability: A Social Media Safety and Family-Based Awareness Guide for Women in Rapidly Digitalizing Provinces.”

Our Department of Sociology alumni continue their success in their academic journey.

Our PhD student Akbar Mohammadi Kahrizeh’s thesis titled “The Politics of Religiosity and Secularism: Narratives from West Azerbaijan, Iran” has been published as a book by IBER Akademi.

Our Sociology doctorate candidate Ayesha Syed has been awarded PhD after defending her dissertation titled “(De)Constructing Pakistaniyat: A Saga of Dissemination of Master and Counter Narratives” successfully.

The academic article titled “Kurdish Muslims in the USA” by Prof. Mücahit Bilici, visiting faculty member in the Department of Sociology has been published in the Vienna Yearbook of Kurdish Studies.

Our Sociology PhD candidate Neveen Fathi Abouldahab presented her research at three different international conferences.

Postdoctoral researcher Assist. Prof. Yasemin Özer participated in the international European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) 2026 Conference where comparative discussions on the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of care are shared.

An article co-authored by our PhD graduate and visiting researcher Dr. Dalal Bajes and Dr. Ahmet Yusuf Özdemir, titled “Rhythms of Resistance in Palestine: Political Socialization, Ideology and Cultural Performativity within Hamas Anthems”, has been published in the Q1-indexed Journal of Palestine Studies.

The article titled “The Psychopolitics of Violence: Warlordism, Clan Mobilization, and the Making of the Somali Civil War”, authored by our PhD graduate Dr. Abdirashid Diriye Kalmoy, has been published in the FSM Scholarly Studies Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Our PhD graduate and visiting researcher Dr. Dalal Bajes’ article titled “Teaching Resistance: Pedagogical Reflections on ‘Sociology of Resistance’” has been published in the journal Protest.

Research Assistant Yunus Yeşil from the Department of Sociology, PhD candidate Neveen Fathi Abouldahab, and MA graduate Mariam Agha presented their studies at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2026 Annual Conference.

Our Sociology MA student Besra Betül Akın presented the paper titled “Negotiating Subjectivity and Precarity: Women's Entrepreneurship, Resilience, and Self-Actualization in Türkiye”, co-authored with our Sociology PhD alumna Dr. Nesibe Demir and our Sociology MA student İrem Üstün at the Gender, Work & Organization (GWO) Conference.

Our MA students Ayşenur Ergin and Gamze Kapar in the Department of Sociology, presented their research paper, “Invisibility, Resistance, and 'Masculinization': Negotiating Female Identity and Labor in the Case of Kayseri, Turkey”, at the Gender, Work & Organization (GWO) Conference.

Our Sociology PhD candidate Mohammed Zulkarnain successfully defended his doctoral dissertation titled “Interracial Marriage Between Blacks and White Turks in Türkiye: An Intersectionality of Race, Class, Migration, and Religion” and earned his doctorate degree.

Our Sociology MA student Beyzagül Öztürk successfully defended her thesis titled “Memory, Sense of Belonging and Home Making: Stories of Uzbeks from Afghanistan in İstanbul”.

Assist. Prof. Merve Reyhan Ceylan from the Department of Sociology presented two of her researched in two different international academic conferences.

Our Sociology student Evin Bulut successfully defended her master’s thesis titled “Identity, Sense of Belonging and Agency: Being Woman in the Yezidi Community in Russia” conducted under the supervision of Prof. Ramazan Aras.

Prof. Irfan Ahmad from our Sociology Department presented his works “How Non-West Dreams a Global Order: On Alternatives to the Euro-American Model” and “Rethinking Commitment: Participant Thinking, Not Participant Observation!” in Netherlands and China.

Our Sociology Master’s student Afife Eren successfully defended her thesis titled “Intellectuals, Academia and Silence: The Case of Palestine After October 7th, 2023”.

Our alumna Beyza barutçu’s “Between Two Worlds: Work–Family Balance and Bicultural Identity Among Second-Generation Devout Turkish Women in Germany” titled article has been published in a Q1 ranked journal.

The Department of Sociology hosted Prof. Walter D. Mignolo, one of the leading figures in decolonial theory on our Süleymaniye campus.

Talal Asad Award presented to the master’s thesis titled “Coping Strategies of Aleppian Elder Parents from an Intergenerational Perspective: Aleppo and Istanbul” at the 5th Sociology Days.

Al-Biruni Award presented to the undergraduate thesis titled “Disciplined Bodies, Disciplined Minds: A Critical Inquiry into the Wellness Industry” at the 5th Sociology Days.

The 5th Sociology Days and Student Research Symposium, organized by the Department of Sociology held on May 8–10, 2026, at our Başakşehir Complex.