About

The Master’s program in Cultural Studies at Sabanci University fosters an open intellectual atmosphere where students and academic staff engage with ongoing debates on critical issues of cultural politics in Turkey and around the world in the era of neo-liberal globalism.

The program’s core staff are involved in a wide range of research projects and public platforms, both national and international. Particular strengths of the program include ethnographic and interpretive methodologies, and collaboration across disciplines on the following research themes:

• Transnational mobility, ethnic identities and citizenship
• Gender, sexuality, intimacy
• Ideology and politics of representation
• Memory studies and oral history

Students in the Master’s program can pursue two degree pathways. All students are expected to complete one year of intensive seminars. During the second year, students who are interested in research or academic careers can opt to work on a research theme of their own choice, under the supervision of a faculty member. Such students are expected to write a well-argued thesis, subject to evaluation by a thesis committee. Examples of recent MA research topics by students include:

• “Independent/alternative artist initiatives” in contemporary Istanbul
• Being a soldier’s mother in Turkey
• The Turkish sub-genre of military coup narratives
• Representations of “honor” among Turkish immigrant women in Berlin
• The politics of Kurdish children and youth in urban space
• Tourist gaze and tourist narratives in Southeastern Anatolia
• Relations to the Western literary canon in Pamuk and Rushdie
• Censorship on visual arts in contemporary Turkey

Students who desire enhanced specialization for careers in culture industries or non-governmental organizations can choose the non-thesis path. Such students are expected to fulfill their MA requirements by undertaking an additional semester of seminar work, subject to the approval and supervision of an academic committee.