CEST Summer/Fall School

The Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey (CEST) works to advance research on Turkey and provide opportunities for early career scholars and graduate students in Turkey and Europe by organizing academic events and promoting the exchange of ideas and networking among scholars.

 CEST is delighted to announce its first Summer/Fall School. Starting in 2021, CEST will offer a series of summer programs to support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars pursuing research related to Turkey in the humanities and the social sciences. The two-week programs are designed to support participants’ individual research projects, provide training in specific research areas, encourage the participants to present their work in a transdisciplinary framework, and develop career-building skills such as academic writing and grant writing.

The theme of the first virtual CEST Summer/Fall School is Intersectionality. Originating in critical race and gender studies, intersectionality provides a framework to understand intersecting systems of domination, social relations and structures (e.g., ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality, religion) that (re)produce power structures, privileges and inequalities. While intersectionality has been integrated into various disciplines ranging from the humanities and social sciences to law and economy, it also has come under criticism. The first CEST Summer/Fall School will address the challenges of incorporating intersectionality as a theoretical framework into empirical and non-empirical research designs, while taking into consideration its limits and pitfalls.

The CEST Summer/Fall School will be held online from 1 October to 15 October 2021. Its interactive format includes lectures, readings, interactive exercises, online social spaces and exchange with instructors and members of CEST. Participants will be able to present and discuss their own work, receive feedback, and have the opportunity to workshop, revise, and expand it.

Graduate students and early career scholars are expected to attend and participate in all events during the two-week period. While the first week is dedicated to methodologies in intersectionality research, the second week develops the participants’ individual research and career-building skills. Successful participants will receive a certificate from CEST.

The CEST Summer/Fall school is open to graduate students (enrolled in MA and PhD programs) and early career scholars (no more than two years since PhD) in Turkey and Europe whose research interest is relevant to intersectionality in the context of Turkey.

The teaching language is English. All participants must be proficient in English on an academic level.

Application process

The application period is now closed.

Applicants should submit a letter of motivation, their CV and research exposé of no more than 2,000 words in English via email by the extended deadline June 25, 2021, using the subject heading “CEST Intersectionality Summer/Fall School.” The exposé should lay out your research design, methodological approach, data/empirical material (if applicable), and expected/preliminary findings. Please send your applications in one single pdf document titled “name_surname_brief project title” to cestgraduateschool@uni-due.de

Selected participants will be invited by mid-July. There is no application fee. Please do not hesitate to contact us via cestgraduateschool@uni-due.de with any questions you may have.

Call for Applications (PDF)

Organizers

Professor Kader Konuk, Institute for Turkish Studies and Academy in Exile, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Dr. Imren Borsuk, Berlin Forum Transregional Studies, Germany/ Affiliated researcher at Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies

CEST Members

Kerem Öktem, CEST Chair, Professor, Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Paul T Levin, CEST Director, Director, Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies

Jenny White, CEST Vice Director, Professor, Stockholm University Institute for Turkish Studies

Lea Nocera, CEST Member, Professor, University of Naples ‘L'Orientale’

Kader Konuk, CEST Member, Professor, Institute for Turkish Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen

Elise Massicard, CEST Member, Research Professor, CNRS/CERI Sciences Po

Yavuz Köse, CEST Member, Chair for Ottoman and Turkish Studies, University of Vienna

Since  2015,  the Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey (CEST) has aided the professional development and built Turkish and European networks of young scholars in Turkish Studies through its annual conferences. Through these activities, we have understood that CEST can contribute further by providing young scholars a solid grounding in methodology, organized around a substantive, thematic focus. To this end, CEST will initiate one-week intense summer schools focused on methods and other career-building skills, including different approaches that are of value across the various disciplines represented in the field of Turkish Studies (for instance, grant writing, publication, career management, etc.) Each Summer School also will have a substantive theme, decided in consultation with the CEST Director and Deputy Director. Within this broad framework, the exact theme and content of the classes will be decided by the hosting institution. The teaching language is English, in which all participants must be proficient.

The Summer Schools bring together young scholars from Turkey and Europe. Postdoctoral students and early career scholars (less than five years since Ph.D.) should apply directly to the hosting institution for that year. Within the stated budget, the organizers will cover travel and lodging for all successful applicants. The application process and key dates are laid out in the call distributed by the hosting institution.