Faculty members of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Antalya Bilim University are committed to extending their academic expertise beyond the boundaries of the campus and contributing to the intellectual and cultural life of the city.
In line with this vision, the “Seminars on the History of Türkiye,” organized by our Department faculty member Assoc. Prof. Murat Kasapsaraçoğlu under the auspices of SEPAM (Center for Political, Economic and Social Research) between February and May 2022, represent a significant contribution to public engagement with historical knowledge. The series began with Dr. Akın Sefer’s seminar, “The Ottoman Empire during the Reign of Abdülhamid II,” and continued with Assoc. Prof. Sevtap Demirci’s “The Treaty of Lausanne,” Prof. Zafer Toprak’s “Türkiye during the Single-Party Era,” and Assoc. Prof. Murat Kasapsaraçoğlu’s “Türkiye during the Democrat Party Era.” The series concluded with Prof. Asım Karaömerlioğlu’s “Türkiye between Two Military Coups” and, once again, Assoc. Prof. Murat Kasapsaraçoğlu’s “Türkiye in the 1980s and 1990s.”
Through these historical perspectives, key turning points that shaped Türkiye’s modern history were made accessible to the public and younger generations. The seminars contributed to greater public awareness of the historical roots of today’s institutional and political structures while encouraging a more informed, analytical, and critical culture of public discussion.
Alongside raising awareness of national history, our Department faculty consider making the complexities of the global system accessible to wider segments of society an important form of social responsibility. In this regard, the “Foreign Policy and Security Academy Certificate Program” and the “New World Order Certificate Program,” held in April–May and November 2019 with the contribution of Prof. Tarık Oğuzlu, an esteemed scholar in the field, as well as the training program entitled “The Changing Dynamics of Global Order,” organized in September 2021 under the auspices of SEPAM, brought changing international power dynamics and Türkiye’s position within the global system to public attention with academic depth.
Our academicians continue to undertake initiatives aimed at strengthening interaction between the university and the city by bringing academic knowledge and debate into dialogue with Antalya’s local dynamics. In this context, during the SEPAM Certificate Program entitled “Antalya in the Context of Locality and Universality,” held in November–December 2021, our faculty member Assoc. Prof. I. Cerem Cenker-Özek delivered a talk entitled “Locality and Universality: Philosophical and Theoretical Debates.”
Through these open conferences and seminar series, our Department’s strong academic staff continue to make scholarly knowledge more accessible to society at large, thereby contributing to the intellectual development of our city and our country.
