Our Mission

The Department of Political Science and International Relations offers B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. Its academic program covers the four major subfields in the discipline: comparative politics, international relations, political theory, and Turkish politics.

The Department’s main objective is to provide a balanced education committed to diversity. In addition to courses that orient them to the field, students are given the opportunity to conduct extensive research on such contemporary issues as the European Union, political economy, democratization, human rights, gender and identity politics. An expert staff including visiting professors from abroad offers a wide range of elective courses in order to allow students to specialize from the junior year onwards in areas of their choice.

Department graduates find career opportunities at home and abroad in the private as well as the public sector, particularly in organizations affiliated with the United Nations and the European Union, in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in universities and the media, and in private companies. As this range of career options indicates, the Department’s educational philosophy is to provide students with intellectual depth and with the necessary tools to think independently, to question and criticize, engage in collaborative work and be open-minded about alternative points of view. The Department has therefore adopted an interdisciplinary perspective and a multi-dimensional approach to the accumulation of knowledge.

Faculty members, all of whom have obtained their degrees from distinguished American or European universities, are in constant interaction with colleagues and institutions in many countries of the world. Exchange programs carried out with 37 foreign universities give undergraduate students the chance to study in a different environment for a semester or more. In addition, the Department’s academic ties serve as a bridge for students interested in enrolling in M.A. or Ph.D. programs in universities abroad. Each year several students receive scholarships from U.S. and European universities for graduate studies.