ASBEN Blog

 Hi everyone, I am Doruk Işıkçı. I received my bachelor’s degree in the International Relationship Department of Ankara University Political Science Faculty and master’s degree in Political Science and International Relations at TOBB University. Currently, I do conduct my Ph.D. research on the role of civil society organisations (CSOs) in the nation-building process of South Africa. In this regard, while I conduct three case studies through participant observation, data collection from the official statements, and interviews in the targeted CSOs, I also employ survey-based research as complementary data in the various parts of South Africa. My interest in South Africa dates to my bachelor’s degree when I had worked as an intern at the Institute of African Studies of Ankara University. The most important contribution of this process in which several activities and events had been held was making a network with the scholars who study Africa in Turkey. Over the years, my interest ...

Hello everyone from Malaysia, the homeland of Harimau (Malayan Tiger), with this first post! In addition to being a symbol of courage and strength for Malaysians, Harimau is constantly visible in Malaysian daily life through various emblems. For example, you can see Harimau in the symbol of Proton, Malaysia’s first national automobile company, in the logo of Maybank, one of Malaysia’s important corporate banks, and in the coat of arms of the Royal Malaysian Police. In a way, this post  includes the postgraduate education part of the personal history of Ahmed Çağrı Inan, a PhD student who tried to understand Malaysia first and then explain what he understood from his perspective. The underlying reason for defining my writing is that I am a history student and I need to consider the length of my post so that reading becomes an equally enjoyable activity for the reader. For this reason, I designed the post as two separate sections that complement each other. The first part includes th...

H ello everyone! I am Hacer Elmaci. I received a bachelor's degree in History from Ankara University, Faculty of Language and History, Geography, my first master's degree in Contemporary History at Gazi University in Turkey, and my second master's degree in International Studies at the University of   Tsukuba in Japan.   I am currently a first-year Ph.D. researcher in Japanese Studies at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. My research areas are Gender and Women Studies, Modern Japanese History, Japanese Nationalism and Imperialism, Modernization, Education, History Textbooks, Turkish-Japanese Relations. My studies are funded by the Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education Scholarship Program, the YLSY. First of all, I would like to thank Ankara Social Sciences University Institute for  Regional Studies for allowing us to share our experiences. My academic journey started at Ankara University. I completed my BA degree at the Department of History. ...

  Hello everyone!  I am Ibrahim Akbas from China Studies. I do conduct my PhD research on Chinese public diplomacy in the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). As China rises in world politics, understanding how China talks with foreign audiences has become crucially important. I analyze China’s public diplomacy discourse on Islam and Muslims; and try to find out answers to how Muslim audiences interpret China’s messages. Today, diplomatic communication is a two-way road. Thus, perceptions of the foreign audiences are as important as the way a state talks to foreign publics. Learning the unlearned through studying abroad has always been my great enthusiasm. During my bachelor years, I was an exchange student in Lomonosov Moscow State University. After graduating from International Relations in Ankara University, I started to Eurasian Studies MSc program in the Middle East Technical University (METU), as Eurasian politics was my main academic interest at those times. ...

  I'm Kamil Tarhan I completed my bachelor (2016) and master’s (2018) degrees at Selcuk University in the department of International Relations. Then, I was accepted to the Turkish Ministry of National Education's scholarship (YLSY) program, which I applied for in 2017, on behalf of ASBU in 2018. And, now I am doing my Ph.D. in Political Sciences at the International Islamic University Malaysia. First of all, I would like to state that we are always in a change and innovation in every aspect of our lives. Human life is in a constantly dynamic structure and I think it has to be so. Many plans that we dream of and we want to realise are part of these changes. This has always been true for me, as well. At the first stage of my undergraduate study, which I completed with great enthusiasm, I wanted to be a politician and achieve good things in the country. I always dreamed of being a democratic bureaucrat who could express his thoughts freely and derive his strength from human rig...

Greetings from Yogyakarta / Indonesia,   I am Tufan Kutay Boran. I completed my undergraduate degree in International Relations at Gazi University and my master's degree in International Relations at Selcuk University. At the moment, I am conducting my Ph.D. studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada in the department of government and politics since September/2019. My research is about the role of Islamic political parties and interest groups in Indonesian foreign policy after the Reformasi (Reformation). In this context, as a person who comes from geography almost completely foreign to the region, I will try to convey to you the experiences I have lived for 2 years in Indonesia. Frankly, although I was worried that no scholarship student had come to Indonesia before me, I was also excited to be the first student to study the region. After I figured out that I was awarded the Indonesian scholarship program, the first thing I did was searching for doctoral programs here. In this con...