İHÜ Araştırma ve Akademik Performans Sistemi
DSpace@İHÜ, İbn Haldun Üniversitesi’nin bilimsel araştırma ve akademik performansını izleme, analiz etme ve raporlama süreçlerini tek çatı altında buluşturan bütünleşik bilgi sistemidir.
Güncel Gönderiler
Commodi ication, exploitation and vulnerability: (Un) documented Afghan migrant workers in Istanbul
(The International Sociological Association (ISA), 2025) Aras, Ramazan; Kül, Ensar; Ibrahim, Saleh Kahled; Göktaş, Melahat; İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Sosyoloji Bölümü
Turkey has witnessed a tremendous migration wave of Afghan migrants infiltrating from the Eastern political territorial borders of the country in the last decade. Most of these young migrants’ only hope is to gain better life conditions either in Turkey or Europe to support themselves and their families. On the way from Afghanistan to Istanbul through agency of human traffickers, they have suffered and coped with many difficulties during which many of their friends lost their lives leaving their dead bodies on the smuggling paths in the mountainous Kurdish region on the Iranian- Turkish border. Based on the data of an ethnographic oral history project, this paper aims to document how these male and female migrants develop survival tactics in the job market as documented and undocumented workers where they have been subjected to diverse forms of exploitation. Their dignity is constantly being violated and their bodies are seen and treated as “docile bodies” that can be consumed any time. The rise of human rights violations ad xenophobia has expanded a ground of necropolitics for migrants in Turkey where precarity, fear, despair and waiting become new ways of life. Focusing on the life story Ahmad who lost one of his legs while working in a harsh working place, and narratives of many other male and female workers, this paper tries to analyze and shed light on the violent circumstances of (un)documented migrant workers in Istanbul and their struggle and hope for a possible “future”.
Changes in migrants’ preferences for socialization and leisure spaces: The experiences of Syrian migrants in Istanbul
(The International Sociological Association (ISA), 2025) Ünal, Arzu; Ibrahim, Saleh Kahled; Topkaya, Besra Betül
Migrants need spaces where they can spend their leisure time and socialize amid the crowded and noisy urban environment. For tens of thousands of Syrian migrants living in Istanbul, historic grand mosques, parks, and city squares serve as key locations for socialization. These spaces are significant for migrant families during both leisure time and religious occasions. They provide low-cost venues where middle-class and low-income migrant women can gather outside their homes and where their children can interact with local children or other migrant children.
For adults, particularly the first generation of migrants, historic grand mosques play a crucial role in strengthening existing relationships and performing religious duties, especially during Ramadan and feasts. Notable examples of such spaces include the Fatih Mosque and the Sultanahmet Mosque, located in Istanbul’s Fatih district. These places are significant points in the city where migrants can simultaneously meet their religious, cultural, and recreational needs. The proximity of these spaces to migrant settlements, both geographically and culturally, makes them preferred destinations for many migrants.
This study focuses on how social spaces in Istanbul, such as the Fatih and Sultanahmet Mosques, have been transformed through the experiences of Syrian migrants. In recent years, rising anti-migrant sentiments, economic challenges, and Turkey’s evolving migration policies have forced many Syrian families to change their spatial preferences and seek alternative venues. Increasingly, migrant families are forgoing spending religious occasions, like Ramadan and holidays, as well as their free time on weekends, at the Fatih and Sultanahmet Mosques, and are exploring new opportunities in other parts of the city. This study examines the factors behind the changing social spaces preferred by Syrian migrants in Istanbul for leisure and religious activities, as well as the alternatives they are exploring.
Emotion of fear, language and body politics: Narratives of Syrian migrants in Istanbul
(The International Sociological Association (ISA), 2025) Aras, Ramazan; Öztürk, Beyzagül; Topkaya, Besra Betül; İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Sosyoloji Bölümü
Turkey is going through a social, cultural, economic and political turmoil due to arrival of millions of migrants from neighbouring countries and other conflict and post-conflict places in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Istanbul as the leading host city in the country is being challenged by diverse issues and problems in this process. This paper aims to investigate the power dynamics between Syrian migrants and mainstream Turkish society in the context of emotion of fear, politics of language and discourses and how they are sticked on the surface of the bodies of migrants in everyday life in Istanbul. The Turkish politics of exclusion, stigmatization and discriminatory discourses along with exhausting bureaucratic procedures and papers works have led a constant state of felt fear, despair and anxiety in the lives of Syrian migrants. Migrants have tried to cope with violent climate created against them during which they have developed new tactics of survival. Their language as a sign of their existence and their dress codes as visible forms of their existence have been attacked on daily basis. This paper aims to investigate how the circulation of anti-migrant emotions through different mediums in the mainstream Turkish society has contributed insecure life condition for migrants. Based on an ethnographic oral history project, the paper documents emergence of these survival tactics and the discriminatory violent factors that generates them in the light of narratives of ordinary migrants residing in different districts of Istanbul.
Dijital dünyada Müslüman olmak: Mecra, kimlik ve otorite
(Fecr Yayın, 2026) Başak, Mehmet Ali; Başak, Mehmet Ali; İslami İlimler Fakültesi, Temel İslam Bilimleri Bölümü
21. yüzyılda internet, Müslümanlar için salt bir iletişim aracı olmanın ötesine geçerek; inancın yaşandığı, kimliklerin inşa edildiği ve dinî meselelerin müzakere edildiği bir “Siber İslami Ortam”a (Cyber Islamic Environment) evrilmiştir. Bu derleme kitap, dijitalleşmenin Müslüman toplumların inanç, pratik ve sosyalleşme biçimleri üzerindeki dönüştürücü etkisini çok boyutlu bir perspektifle incelemektedir. Çalışma, sanal ve fiziksel dünyalar arasındaki sınırların giderek geçirgenleştiği yeni bir düzlemde; çevrimiçi ve çevrimdışı alanların birbirini dışlamadığı “hibrit” bir dindarlık deneyimine odaklanmaktadır. Kitap, Türkiye’nin ağ toplumu tecrübesinden Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı’nın dijitalleşme stratejilerine, sosyal medya fıkhından Müslüman kadınların dijital tefsir faaliyetlerine kadar uzanan geniş bir inceleme yelpazesi sunmaktadır. Bununla birlikte eser, “Şeyh Google” ve “Yapay Zekâ İmam” gibi metaforlar üzerinden dinî otoritenin yapısal dönüşümünü irdelerken; Kanada’daki Müslüman diasporasının mekânsal stratejilerini ve Üsküdar örneği üzerinden Z kuşağının yeni sosyalleşme kodlarını da analiz etmektedir. Algoritmalarla şekillenen bilgi hiyerarşisine ve dijital çağın beraberinde getirdiği etik sorulara dikkat çeken bu çalışma, okuyucuyu çağdaş Müslüman öznenin inşasını ve teşekkül eden yeni dijital dinî alanı keşfetmeye davet etmektedir.
Karyağdı Hatun: locating Islam in the national opera of “Modern” Turkey
(Springer Nature, 2026) Ünal, Rahime Arzu; İnsan ve Toplum Bilimleri Fakültesi, Sosyoloji Bölümü
The Turkish national opera, founded and shaped by a secular presidential initiative, has historically played a crucial role in defining cultural unity and Turkish national identity. Tracing Islam on the national operatic stage reveals the changing limits and representations of the Muslim self, the multi-layered national imagination, and how they have been closely entwined with changing modalities of secularism in Turkey. By examining the opera Karyağdı Hatun, this study explores how Islam was positioned within the national operatic stage, reflecting shifting representations of the Muslim subject and secularism under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) since 2002. The two productions of Karyağdı Hatun, one from 1985 and the other from 2012, I analyze in this article illustrate two different modes of decontextualizing Islam in the national imagination, minimizing and adapting its cultural and religious symbols in favor of a modern national narrative. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with former and current contributors to the Turkish State Opera and Ballet (Devlet Opera ve Balesi, the DOB from here on) as well as an analysis of media coverage of the productions, this study examines the contested reception of Karyağdı Hatun and its impact on broader debates on secularism and Islam in Turkey. The research utilizes Julia Kristeva's concept of "abjection" to explore exclusionary mechanisms at play within the secular space of the national opera that paradoxically allow for the partial inclusion of Muslim representation. Through a comparative lens, this paper not only showcases the intricate dynamics at play in the shifting portrayal of Islam in Karyağdı Hatun, but also underscores how the evolving national imagination reflects changing state policies towards Islam, oscillating between repression and selective inclusion.
