On April 2, 2025, Tufts University released a formal declaration in support of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student facing detention and deportation. The following is the full text of the statement, signed by Tufts President Sunil Kumar, as submitted to the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. University Declaration for Rümeysa Öztürk April 2, 2025 … Read more
Rümeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish PhD student at Tufts University and a former Fulbright scholar, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Tuesday, March 26, 2025, near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts. She was on her way to an iftar dinner to break her Ramadan fast. The arrest was reportedly linked to … Read more
I am surprised to see how many American entities are giving in to rising authoritarianism. We sometimes talk about this nowadays. Even Turkish entities resisted longer. The whole federal system idea, the rule of law, etc. All should have more power to stay autonomous. Besides, a university like Columbia must have more than enough resources … Read more
Dear Bilge and her colleagues interviewed me, among other experts and academics, for the article: Şenyüz, B., Özgen, E., & Oğuzcan, A. U. (2025). Integrating GenAI into communication education for ‘generation prompt’: an exploration of academics’ perspectives on its benefits, challenges, and future prospects in Turkiye. Encontros Bibli: revista eletrônica de biblioteconomia e ciência da … Read more
For ages, I have written about the restrictive measures against academic freedom in Türkiye. It was nearly unthinkable to imagine this for the US setting, but here comes a period when American academics may be under more pressure than back home. Yesterday, I saw the news that Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian … Read more
It has been an honor to be part of STS Türkiye for more than four years. We could not get funding on time, so lecturers paid their own tickets to come and lecture in Ankara. Thanks to the Ministry of Youth, students could stay in a beautiful guest house! Monday, February 3, 2025 12:00Arrival 13.00-14.00Lunch … Read more
As more than 60 German and Austrian academic organizations depart X, a day after Musk’s Weidel talk, I have curated a list of institutions that left X. I have also looked to see if these academic organizations are looking for alternatives. There are just too many alternatives, and engagement levels are still low. Media Organizations … Read more
update: Historians’ Council Vetoes Gaza Scholasticide Condemnation American Historical Association convention-goers overwhelmingly passed the statement on Jan. 5, but the group’s top elected body has vetoed it without letting all AHA members vote. I guess there might be similar outcomes in other fields, too. Historians Condemn ‘Scholasticide’ in Gaza at Conference The measure now goes … Read more
Despite being a star academic, he was kind enough to return my emails when I was an MA student. His Weapons of the Weak was influential in political thinking, and his Seeing Like a State was a major source for me retreating from a particular radical politics. In my Rice years, my research focus changed, … Read more
The official site is slightly clunky, but you can get it all there. My session is tomorrow. I have asked the chatGPT to categorize the conference topics: Top Topics at the EASA 2024 Conference Doing and Undoing Mobility: Several panels address the dynamics of mobility, immobility, and migration, often from an anthropological lens. Anthropology of … Read more
POINT organizers were just great. We felt at home, productive meetings, exchanging ideas, and some sightseeing… One of the last places I meant to see was Gazi Husrev-beg’s library When you enter the library, the smell of books hits you. I did some reading there with many in the reading room but did not … Read more
We use Turnitin, which also offers AI similarity reports. There is nearly universal acceptance of Turnitin similarity reports in higher education, but AI similarity reports are a different case. I know a few students whom I trust had high similarity rates. This week, we discussed this with my colleagues. Some colleagues are very aggressive and … Read more
April 2024 Israel–Hamas war protests on university campuses in the United States Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses escalated on April 17, 2024, spreading to other universities in the United States and other countries, as a part of wider Israel–Hamas war protests. The escalation began after mass arrests at the Columbia University campus occupation, led by anti-Zionist groups, in which protesters … Read more
This week has been overwhelmingly busy. A few days ago, we met in Istanbul for the Istanbul session for our GRADE COST project. My colleague Ivo Furman did a fantastic job of organizing the event in a lovely place in Istanbul (check out the place, Postane). I also participated in organizing a Wikipedia session … Read more
Recent issues on American campuses related to pro-Palestinian causes include (The list was created with the help of Perplexity): Suppression of pro-Palestinian voices: There has been a surge in reports of pro-Palestinian activists being fired or facing threats for expressing their views, which has been described as the “Palestine exception to free speech”[2]. Legal … Read more