Here are more thoughts on academic life! Episode 12 is at your service: What the university has that cannot be delivered Two episodes ago I argued that the university’s peculiar gift is slow time — the licence to sit with a question for fifteen years. In the last one I argued that its other gift … Read more
After a long hiatus, I am back with the unboxing. I finally have time and the opportunity to bring some boxes from my father’s storage place. Sometime in the late 1980s It should be the summer I finished the third year in primary school. As throughout the primary school summers, we were staying in my … Read more
Ethnography, more important than ever The generative systems that have arrived in the last few years are extraordinarily good at a particular kind of intellectual work. Ask one of them what a body of literature says, and it will -mostly properly- summarize, cross-reference, and organize the written record with a facility no human scholar can … Read more
In nine episodes (you can find them here), I have focused on some characteristics of the current academic life that is killing the university system -not any more- slowly: Nine episodes of administrative bloat, ranking obsessions, funding regimes that reward the wrong things, accreditation rituals nobody quite believes in, a journal hierarchy that has turned … Read more
Türkiye, following Australia, recently banned social media for children under 15. Just a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine such a ban, but things change fast. I have curated some information on these bans and related restrictions in other countries using Perplexity. Here it is: Turkey and Australia have both adopted … Read more
Here comes the new episode for Thoughts on academic life There has always been self‑promotion in academia. People mailed offprints, boasted about books, dropped famous names at dinner. But the contemporary landscape is qualitatively different: platformized, metricized, gamified.[6][8] Academics now operate across multiple, interconnected arenas: Citation and profile platforms: Google Scholar, Scopus IDs, ORCID, ResearchGate, … Read more
Just finished an article by dear Joakim Parslow, who knows this blog well. I have done some research on the history of the internet in Türkiye, but Joakim goes far past the pre-internet decades, where Cybernetics had some resonance. The article link is here. Parslow, J. (2021). The Mechanical Atatürk: Cybernetics and State Violence in … Read more
There’s a massive, viral trend on Turkish X right now (early March 2026) where Turkish users are celebrating Spain as the new “kardeş ülke” (brother country). The reason? Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez’s firm “No to war” stance — specifically refusing to let the US use Spanish bases for any attacks/escalation involving Iran, plus Spain’s long-standing … Read more
A new session of accreditation in our campus is up. That means we will compile strategic plans, assessment reports, learning outcome documentation, meeting minutes, curriculum maps, faculty CVs formatted according to specific templates, evidence of “continuous improvement,” proof of “stakeholder engagement,” and spreadsheets demonstrating “alignment” between course objectives and program outcomes. The process consumes dozens … Read more
Episode 7: “Projecilik”—When Funding Becomes the Product I was recently at an academic conference when a colleague introduced herself: “I’m working on a TÜBİTAK-funded project on digital literacy.” Not “I’m researching digital literacy.” Not “I’m studying how social media affects learning.” No—the funded project itself was the primary credential, the opening gambit, the thing most … Read more
Before I moved to the US for my doctoral studies, I had worked as a TA at İstanbul Bilgi University. I assisted Prof Avcı’s introduction to media courses. Nabi Avcı was involved in politics and later served as Turkey’s minister of education and then of culture. I had the opportunity to get in touch with … Read more
Episode 3- The Q1 Journal Fetish Episode 4- The Administrator Problem Episode 5- The University Rankings Game With no public debate or academic consensus, Türkiye’s Higher Education Council (YÖK) decided to reduce undergraduate education to 3 years. YÖK is so powerful that no university administration can challenge its decisions. YÖK can easily stop a university’s existence. I have … Read more
Here comes the 5th episode. I have relied on Claude in formatting the text and doing some research. In the very end, I also provide a list of all major university rankings, prepared with the help of Perplexity. Episode 1- The Performance of Transparency Episode 2 – The Theater of Scholarly Collegiality Episode 3- The Q1 Journal … Read more
Episode 4: The Administrator Problem—More Royalist Than the King Episode 1- The Performance of Transparency Episode 2 – The Theater of Scholarly Collegiality Episode 3- The Q1 Journal Fetish Think of a curriculum reform meeting where the university administrator unveiled a new “strategic excellence framework.” The presentation featured organizational charts, key performance indicators, and deliverables. The word … Read more
Episode 3: The Q1 Journal Fetish Episode 1- The Performance of Transparency Episode 2 – The Theater of Scholarly Collegiality A colleague proudly announced his latest publication, adding Q1 even before the title. I see self-promotional Instagram posts that mention the Q number, mostly Q1. This moment crystallized something I’ve observed throughout my career in Turkish … Read more