This course seeks to discuss and explore a series of much-debated issues surrounding the theory, production, exhibition, critique, management and exchange of contemporary art. What relevance does contemporary art have in an increasingly globalized world? What kind of knowledge production does contemporary art involve? In what ways can contemporary art challenge our concepts of the individual and society?

Issues in Cultural Management is an introductory course for Cultural Management Graduate Program and its topic. Course aims at presenting cultural management in its all form in public and private sector, and it follows on the base of concepts, models and suggestions. It discusses the expected knowledge that a cultural manager and entrepreneur should have in a theoretical framework of cultural industries and management in a critical and analytical framework. Furthermore, this course expects students to develop innovative and creative suggestions and turn them into an article with the knowledge they would gain during the classes. Contemporary actors of cultural scene of Turkey and abroad will be hosted as guests during the course.

In this course we shall examine the challenges that globalisation introduces for cultural policy. With transnational flows of culture and cultural encounters national identities imagined as homogeneous entities are being challenged. Culture is disentangled from its local moorings. Culture is now very much product of global networks and global cultural industries. As cultural products are being incorporated into global operations through globalised culture conglomerates the disembedding of culture from place enhances. Another dynamic of course is the growing salience of cities in the global economy as places where all the contradictions and dynamics are being confronted. Cities have become active agents in the global economy using cultural strategies to attract investment and build desirable image for themselves. We shall be examining globalisation and the city; culture-led revitalisation strategies; cultural industries and globalisation; identity and globalisation; and globalisation, multiculturalsim and transnational citizenship.

Excitement and continuous penetration of New Media in our daily lives make the term given in most context including the academic ones. The course aims to intensively investigate theories that conceptualize New Media. Most of these theoretical perspectives began to be formalized since 1990s. The course aims to contextualize these theories specifically with media and communication studies and more generally with social science theories.

This course aims to provide a theoretical background on the main schools of thought shaping the intellectual landscape of the 20th century (Western) society and culture. Since our scope is overwhelmingly large, it will be most helpful to structure the course under major themes – constantly bearing in mind the mutual relations, responses, continuities and discontinuities between them. The course begins with Western Marxism and its reflections on critical theory; culture industry and aesthetics. After a brief look into existentialist humanism, we will survey the groundbreaking approach of structuralism – ushered by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure. We will see structuralism challenged by post-structuralism. Having spent some time on the works of the leading intellectual giants of the century such as Foucault and Derrida, we will end the course by a brief study on post-modernism.

Methods of Cultural Analysis

Gender and Culture

In its contemporary ‘golden age’, television has become an intriguing platform for filmmakers who are willing to experiment with serial narratives. Movement of filmmakers from cinema to television is not something new but an ongoing phenomenon since the 1980s. However, with the dominance of American subscription-based TV channels such as HBO and global streaming platforms like Netflix over ‘quality content’, more and more filmmakers find themselves experiment with televisual aesthetics, genres and narrative formats. This course aims to approach celebrated filmmakers and their television works as a bridge between cinema and television. Each week a filmmaker’s television content is selected as a case study in order to discuss and elaborate on televisual aesthetics, genres and narrative formats.

This introductory course provides a foundational understanding of cinematography and visual storytelling. Students will engage in hands-on practice to develop skills in composing and capturing visual narratives. Covering technical elements of camera operation and exploring lighting and color, this course offers a holistic approach to the practice of filmmaking.

The main intention of this course is to give students the opportunity to develop necessary skills to recognise and critically assess contemporary trends in television series. By focusing on the contemporary trends in storytelling and introducing the key conventions of the mainstream genres, trends and formats this course invites the students to have a deeper understanding of storytelling in TV series which constitute a significant part in contemporary popular culture.

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the key concepts that form the foundation of film language, essential for understanding how films are constructed using various cinematic tools. The course begins by tracing the origins of film grammar and examining the role of early film audiences, who influenced filmmakers to create visual stories that were both easily watchable and comprehensible. Following this introduction, the course delves into crucial concepts such as shots, storyboarding, camera techniques, the scene axis, film punctuation, lighting, and composition. These elements are fundamental to analyzing the finished products—films. The course also emphasizes the importance of editing and sound in film construction, discussing their roles whenever relevant. Additionally, it covers films that intentionally diverge from conventional cinematic language, offering a broader perspective on the diversity of filmmaking techniques.

Bringing together cinema studies and urban studies, this course is designed as a production-oriented course. Creative examples of cinematic representations of the city, both short and long, fiction and documentary, will be examined in detail. In conjunction with these selected examples, students will be given various prompts to shape their own film/video projects. The ideas developed for the final projects will be discussed in detail in class and each project will be developed collectively and under supervision. By the end of the semester, students will realize a short film project.

This course focuses on directing, covering all stages from concept development and pre-production to post-production. Differences between directing for film and TV will also be discussed, highlighting aesthetic, technical and financial aspects.

This course is designed as an introduction to the world of non-fiction film, as well as a production course in which students will develop non-fiction film projects from pre-production to post-production. It will offer a critical look at the historical development of non-fiction film forms, mostly documentary and ethnographic films as well as experimental films from early films to contemporary examples. It will cover documentary theories and criticism, ethical issues, issues around the problematics of representation, developing ideas, research methods, writing proposals, funding, and distribution rights.

This course introduces the student to the development of the discipline of history within social sciences. It specifically analyzes the historiographical approaches of the 20th century including Structuralism, British Marxism, New Cultural History and Deconstructionism. These historiographical approaches will also be analyzed in terms of their methodological perspectives.

This course deals with the main sources of Ottoman history: most often texts, but also objects and architecture. In the coursework, both samples of source-material (mainly in latinized but not simplified editions) and key texts of the secondary literature will be read and critically discussed. In each course meeting we shall discuss an example source (most often in Turkish transcribed from Arabic handwriting into Latin print) and try to make sense out of it in the light of some secondary literature relating to the particular genre of text. Going through primary sources to discuss Ottoman history will most of the time lead us to think and discuss about methodology and historiography of/by using particular source(s).

The course aims at the analysis of the political economic aspects of the topics that are otherwise known as the issues of international politics. In other words, the so called political questions of the international system would be analysed from a political economic perspective. The topics include Political economy of international politics from a theoretical perspective, Security and Peacekeeping, International Organisations, Energy, Regionalism, European Integration, Middle East, Asia and Turkish Foreign Policy.

This course is designed to be an introduction to the lineage, themes and debates of contemporary theories of world politics. We will discuss many of the theoretical and methodological approaches used in the field and attempt to evaluate them critically. Emphasis will be placed on three main currents namely realism, liberalism and Marxism, as well as on critical approaches in international relations theory. One of the central goals of this course is to provide the student with a set of conceptual tools for use in systematically examining the problems of international relations.

The aim of this course is to survey major theories of media and mediated communication. It covers readings from a wide range of approaches, from effects research to media ecology, from cultivation to diffusion of innovations. The main objective of the course is to provide an overview of these theories in order to facilitate an understanding that research, including the “thesis research”, requires a solid conceptual backing.

In this course students participates in the application of a research project; consider the particulars of own thesis project, and complete the thesis proposal to be submitted by the end of the semester.

This course addresses the history, paradigms, and practices of quantitative, qualitative and digital research in media and communication fields. Various methodological approaches such as descriptive analysis, ethnography, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, grounded theory, oral history, as well as qualitative technniques such as interviews, focus groups and participatory observation are discussed in addition to a basic research ethics training.

Cyber anthropology/ Digital anthropology is a sub branch of sociocultural anthropology. It deals with cybernetic systems, virtual communities, cultures of technology, the computer underground, techno-mysticism and similar concepts that involve culturally informed interrelationships between human beings and digital technologies. This course provides an overview of these major concepts and discusses methodologies for digital ethnographies such as researching online relationships, designing internet behavior research, online interviewing and research relationship, ethnographic presence in cyber settings, and web sphere analysis within anthropological boundaries.

This course aims to study perhaps the most important question of our times: Can democracy survive the onslaughts of the digital deluge? This major phenomenon is affecting all aspects of social life although here our main focus will be the realm of politics. Clearly the old media which was the main source of political news and information have been overtaken by the new digital means of communication. Do the old rules still apply? If not, what are the new rules? Who is supposed to make them? Have basic assumptions underlying the freedom of expression such as ‘rational humans’ and ‘free and open marketplace of ideas’ lost their relevance? How do we cope with new consequences like disinformation, misinformation, permanent noise and post-truth era? How are we, here in Turkey, being affected by these changes? What are our solutions? This course will tackle these questions.

This course explores the ways in which media shapes, reflects, and transforms social life. By examining sound and spatial dynamics, students will investigate how these elements interact and are mediated. By analyzing social phenomena—such as identity, gender, and urban life—students will investigate the ways media both constructs and communicates societal values and norms. Through engagement with social theory, observation techniques, and ethical inquiry, students will develop a reflective understanding of how media mediates experiences and norms of space and sound in society.