Course List for the M.A. Program

SYC501E Political Philosophy

This course introduces political philosophy by studying a selection of primary texts of the Ancient Greek and modern European philosophers like Plato, Aristotle; Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and Rawls. Students will study classical texts of political philosophy from the perspective of these questions: What is the purpose of politics and the state? What is justice? What is freedom and what is equality?

SYC502E Globalization and International Relations

This course focuses on the historical transformation of the international system and globalization. It examines this transformation by situating globalization in the context of developments of the 20th century and within the framework of international relations theories; debating anti-globalization perspectives and the future of globalization, as well as its effects on labor power, environment, human rights, diplomacy and perpetual crisis.

SYC503E Formation of the Modern State

Beginning with feudalism, this course mainly traces the historical process of the initial emergence and the advance of the “modern state” in western Europe. While underlining and discussing some basic concepts of modern state like “power”, “authority” and “legitimacy,” the course defines the basis of the complicated legal and bureaucratic institutionalisation of the modern state. Finally the course deals with the critical approaches to the mainstream model(s) of modern state such as post-structuralism, and discusses its future in a world of rising interdependency and globalization.

SYC504E Methodology in Social Sciences

The course looks at both the methods used in the social sciences and the epistemological foundations of the social sciences. This includes the examination of positions in the philosophy of science, philosophy of social sciences, hermeneutics and language philosophy and the sociology of science. Topics include verification, falsifiability, phenomenology, methodological pluralism, scientific paradigms, language and reality, discourse and structure of knowledge, deconstruction, relativism and realism, science as a social institution and politics of science.

SYC505E Selected Topics in Current Politics

This course focuses on the Great Depression of 1929, economic policies after the World War II, neoliberalism and the effects of neoliberalism on social structure and the actual economic crisis. The course aims to acquaint the students with contemporary political issues by equipping them with the necessary theoretical knowledge and critical outlook.

SYC506E Political Geography

This course focuses on spatial and geographical dimensions of political phenomena covering theoretical approaches to time-space-society relations; systems of global, national, and regional relations; spatial patterns of production, circulation and exchange; spatial structure and resclaing of the state and its legal-institutional settings; politics of scale; political aspects of migration and settlement systems; globalization, regionalization and localization, new regions and localities.

SYC507E Science and Politics

This course addresses the relationship between science and politics on the basis of discussing the classical texts of sociology of science, and how this relationship plays out in today’s world. It aims to enable the students to develop a critical conceptual perspective on science and politics, and their forms of institutionalization. Modernism, constructivism, relativism and post-modernism are key currents in reading and debating classical texts of Weber, Mannheim, Marcus, Merton, Polanyi, Schütz and Herf.

SYC508E Urban and Environmental Politics

This course includes discussions on urban and environmental politics based on the concepts of place which human beings relate to and restructure. Urban and environmental politics is concerned with the issues such as production of the physical environment-consumption of natural environment; the role of the state and the local government; environmental and urban social movements; globalization; institutional organization; poverty, social exclusion which are examined within the general framework of power, government/governance and citizens.

SYC509E Language and Politics

This course aims to investigate the relationships between several philosophical views of language with political philosophy. The course builds upon three dominant approaches between language and politics by examining works of Chomsky, Wittgenstein, Austin, Habermas and Foucault. The course aims at understanding how social philosophers’ views of language shape their political philosophy.

SYC510E Political Thought in Modern Turkey

This course will scrutinize the formation of Turkish social and political thought focusing on the period between the beginning of the 19th century and the 1990s that was quite formative in the making of Turkish intellectual life. This course investigates the origins and evolution of various thought currents in Turkish politics such as liberalism, nationalism, corporatism, feminism and conservatism from the end of the nineteenth century onwards.

SYC512E Selected Topics in Turkish Political Life

This course provides a general framework for an analysis of the historical development and origins of Turkish political system since the Tanzimat Edict focusing on the Edicts of Tanzimat and Islahat, the declaration of the First and Second Constitutions, the emergence of the Committee for Union and Progress and the foundation of the Republic; debates of republicanism, nationalism, and constitutionalism.

SYC514E Contemporary Political Theory

An introduction to contemporary political theory based on readings from major texts in political theory which define the current subject area. Topics include the nature of politics, liberty, equality, the state, power, social and political community, law and justice, democracy, and the public sphere.

SYC515E Political Sociology

This course concerns with socio-political phenomena such as politics of social class, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and religion; power of the modern nation state and its institutions; power dynamics that shape social and political life; modern ideologies and utopias that sometimes motivate such politics; the interactions between local politics and global trends at economic and cultural levels; and with the micro-politics of the everyday.

SYC518E Ancient Political Theory

This course is an in depth look at the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle as it emerged as a defense of the naturalness of law and justice, over and against competing theories of justice as contractual or artificial. We will examine Plato and Aristotle’s ideas on ethics and politics in light of the trial and execution of Socrates, ancient Sophistry and the Peloponnesian war.

SYC596 Seminar

This course provides instruction on thesis writing and a forum in which students develop and present their ideas to other members of the class. It aims to give students a sense of community of knowledge, provide them with an opportunity for discussing ideas and their individual progress. The course provides students with the information and guidance necessary for timely and successful completion of their thesis project.

SYC YLT Thesis

An acceptable problem is studied with the guidance of an academic staff in the field of political studies. The results of the research should be presented as a thesis prepared according to the post-graduate thesis guidelines and should be defended before a jury chosen according to the Senate Principles.