Students
Buse Eren is a 2018 graduate of Istanbul University, Department of Labor Economics and Industrial Relations. She graduated from the same school with her second-degree program in Business Administration and a minor in Economics as an honor student. She also completed the undergraduate program of Health Management at Medipol University, where she received a full scholarship as an honor student in 2019. She did an internship in various hospitals and a special education and rehabilitation center. She observed at Turkey Down Syndrome Association related to ''I am Independent Because I am Work: Job Coach Supported Employment Program.'' She is currently a volunteer for Tohum Autism Early Diagnosis and Education Foundation for the "Strengthening the Disabled Child Rights Network" Project. Her research interests include health policies, employment relations, and disability studies.
Daglar received a BA degree in Political Science and International Relations from Bogazici University in 2018. She has been actively involved in civil society organizations. She has conducted sexual and reproductive health peer trainings as a peer trainer for different youth groups including refugees, young women and LGBTI+ community since 2014. She was elected as the International Coordinator of an international youth network named Y-PEER, after serving as Focal Point in-Charge of Y-PEER Turkey. Her research interests include sexual and reproductive health, universal health coverage, the impact of globalization on health care systems and gender studies. She is awarded the 2018 Raoul Wallenberg Institute Postgraduate Scholarship.
Ekin Ekici graduated from the department of sociology at Middle East Technical University in 2013. She studied at ISCTE-IUL in Lisbon, Portugal for a semester as an Erasmus exchange student in 2012. After graduation, she has worked in the humanitarian sector, within international non-governmental organisations and UN agencies in South East Turkey. She is currently a working as a research assistant at Boğaziçi University Social Policy Forum. Her areas of interest include health policies, employment relations, and public opinion on social policy.
Fırat Çoban received his bachelor’s degree from Department of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations at Istanbul University in 2018. He worked as a coordinator and a participant on the national and international human rights project during his undergraduate term. He is one of the founders of Universus Social Research Center which is a youth organization located at Istanbul. His research interests are social policy theory, capitalism and classes, postmodernism and also contemporary political theory.
Merve Basat received her B.A degree from Educational Sciences, Guidance and Psychological Counseling Program at Boğaziçi University with Dean’s Special Award in 2020. During her undergraduate education, she was a volunteer project coordinator at Education and Social Development Foundation (YÖRET), and she worked as an undergraduate tester for Istanbul95 Project. Now, she is the volunteer project coordinator of Education and Behavioral Sciences National Research Community (EDBA). Her main research interest is child well-being with a special focus on social policies for education, inequalities access to quality education, inclusive education, early childhood care policies and preventive mental health services for children. She is a Scientific Preparation student at the Program this year.
She graduated from Sociology Department of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2013. She has been working at the Social Welfare Department of a municipal institution for five years. Her research interests are women’s labor, care policies, social protection - labor market regulations, working poverty.
Oğulcan received his bachelor’s degree from Political Science and International Relationships at Bahçeşehir University in 2019. In addition to that, he is a member of İstanbul LGBTİ+ Pride Week Committee, which organizes series of events taking place during a week such as workshops, conferences, film screening, picnic and pride parade to raise visibility and awareness about lgbti+ rights in Turkey, last three years. He is interested in research areas such as human rights (especially women and lgbti+ rights), social and material inequalities and political-economy.
Tuğba Zeynep Şen received her undergraduate degree in sociology from Galatasaray University in 2019. She worked with The Association of Migration Research and Poedat during her undergraduate studies. She is currently working as a research assistant at Boğaziçi University Social Policy Forum. Her areas of interest include health policy, regulation, public-private partnerships and welfare attitudes.
Verda Uyar completed her BA degree in Sociology and Media and Communications double major program from Istanbul Bilgi University as of 2018. She attended Political Science and International Relations Courses at Sciences Po Paris, where she was an Erasmus exchange student for 6 months during 2015-2016 academic year. Before and during her bachelor degree, she participated to several journalism programs including one at European Forum, and completed her first internship at Hurriyet Newspaper’s International News Services. She is currently working as an editor at Turkey’s first political fact-checking website, Doğruluk Payı. Her research interests include political communication, social inequality and minority rights.
