IN THIS SECTION
Message from the Head of Department
Dear
Students:
Taking up the designation of Head of Department is for me a great honor.
Sociology,
which can be defined as the systematic study of societies, deals with how
societies are organized, how they maintain their existence, and how they
change. Sociology is a discipline that addresses many concepts and phenomena,
including fundamental institutions such as family, education, politics,
religion, economics, and art, as well as social class, identity, conflict,
solidarity, forms of power, political, social, and cultural organizations,
gender, and social inequalities. Indeed, in the current period of great social
transformation, sociology has gained greater importance than ever before.
Sociology
follows a scientific path to investigate and understand many of the world's
most challenging social problems. In this context, sociology addresses many
issues such as the causes of crime or sustainability problems, the conflict
created by social inequalities or the struggle for social justice, the place of
culture in society, the dynamics of climate change, the social significance of
race or ethnicity, demographic changes, and the origins of social movements.
Sociologists utilize the discipline of sociology, whose roots date back to the
19th century, to improve society by examining social phenomena based on
scientific theories and methods.
Our
faculty members specialize and conduct research in numerous fields, including
cultural sociology, rural sociology, family sociology, childhood and youth
sociology, environmental sociology, political sociology, urban sociology,
gender sociology, communication sociology, sports sociology, sociology of
information, science and technology, sociology of art, sociology of migration, and
economic sociology. Each of our academic staff follows innovations in their
respective fields and strives to conduct pioneering research. They share their
knowledge and experience with students in an interactive environment, aiming to
equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge.
Our department provides our students with the best
possible sociology education and supporting their development in the field.
Having expanded its curriculum over the years, our department now offers a very
broad educational program for both undergraduate and graduate students,
covering many subfields of sociology such as environment, tourism, space,
migration, climate, urban studies, culture, education, digital media, art,
security, identity, the body, civil society and volunteerism, disasters, aging,
disability, information, poverty, gender, health, and disease. Furthermore, our
faculty members, with their experience in areas such as qualitative and
quantitative research methods and statistical programs like SPSS and N-Vivo,
equip our students with skills in field research and data analysis. In this era
of digital transformation, making predictions about the future social structure
and determining humanity's new role in this world through data analysis is
becoming increasingly important. In the age of artificial intelligence and
automation, which creates both new threats and opportunities for
transformation, the capacity for sociological imagination- a critical thinking
ability aimed at investigating the human meaning of all these transformations- is
another intellectual quality we strive to instil in our students in our
department. Throughout their education, we offer our students numerous
opportunities in order to contribute to their academic development, including internships,
participation in research projects, and involvement in international exchange
programs (Erasmus, Farabi) with partner universities.
Our
students gain a deep understanding of sociological methodology and theory upon
completing their undergraduate and graduate courses. After completing their
degrees, our graduates are well-placed, serving in various fields and
capacities in the public and private sectors, academia, various
non-governmental organizations, and numerous other industries. Today sociologists’
knowledge and skills are needed in a wide variety of areas, including analyzing
human behavior, understanding and explaining individual preferences as voters
and consumers, efficiently managing human resources in institutions and
companies, building organizational culture, and conducting public opinion
research. In today’s complex societies, sociologists can undertake important
roles in many crucial societal issues, from urban planning and education
policies to migration management and family welfare.
In
short, our department’s fundamental goal is to equip our students with a
multifaceted intellectual foundation that allows them to intimately understand
the dynamics and cultural specificities of their own society, while also
considering global transformations affecting the all societies, possessing
theoretical and critical perspectives, and mastering the technical aspects of
data analysis. In line with this, our department also has a strong
administrative staff that assists our students and faculty members in every
aspect of their education.
We take great pride in our students, whose curiosity and interest in sociology that also drive the intellectual structure of our department.
Prof. Dr. Süheyla SARITAŞ
