Newsletter 8

http://eu.bilgi.edu.tr/tr/publication/newsl/

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the eighth Newsletter of the European Institute of İstanbul Bilgi University. This issue contains information on the activities, publications, conferences, workshops, graduate programs, research, social outreach projects and opinions of our students. We want to inform you that we have some new members in the Institute. Prof. Kübra Doğan Yenisey (Faculty of Law) and Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Uyduranoğlu (Department of Economics) joined the Board of European Institute along with the former members of the Board, Prof. Nihal İncioğlu (Department of International Relations), Prof. Yeşim M. Atamer (Faculty of Law), and Prof. Ayhan Kaya (Department of International Relations). We also have a new member in the Executive Board, Prof. Cem Başlevent (Department of Economics), along with the former members, Prof. Alan Duben (Department of Sociology), Prof. Yonca Aslanbay (Faculty of Communications), Prof. Yeşim M. Atamer, and Prof. Ayhan Kaya. We would like to welcome them, and we are grateful for their tremendous support.

The highlight of this year is the Marie Curie project resulting in important findings with regard to the use of EU funds in Turkey. Dr. Claire Visier, who worked at the European Institute for two years produced a remarkable scientific documentation of the ways in which the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds contributed to the accession process of Turkey. You will also find some further details about the newly starting research projects of Dr. Cristiano Bee, another Marie Curie fellow, and Dr. Meltem Sancak Finke, a TÜBİTAK research fellow.

Details of our ongoing training program for primary and secondary school teachers in Istanbul, designed in collaboration with the İstanbul Directorate of National Education and the Teachers Academy Foundation (ÖRAV) can also be found in this newsletter. The “Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence” organized two teacher training sessions in June and September and discussed with the teachers the “European Values at School”. Both sessions hosted around 70 teachers who participated voluntarily, and heard seminars from academics as well as from ÖRAV in an interactive manner. The support of the İstanbul Directorate of National Education was remarkable. The project will come to an end in late 2016.

In the meantime, Dr. Kevin Smets (Antwerp University) worked with us as a short-term researcher on Kurdish Transnational Cinema. Thomas Schad, PhD candidate from Free University Berlin contributed to the activities of the Institute by its work on Bosniac diaspora in Turkey. In this issue, you will also find more detailed information regarding these projects.

Prof. Ayhan Kaya 

Director, European Institute

Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence