Maneuvers between Compliance and Transformation: University Students Navigating Minority Perceptions in Turkey

Setenay Nil Dogan; Kerem Karaosmanoglu

doi:10.29333/ejecs/2182

Authors

Setenay Nil Dogan Yıldız Technical University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9212-6687
Kerem Karaosmanoglu Yildiz Technical University https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6135-6110

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2182

Keywords:

minority, perception, nationalism, Turkey, education

Abstract

This study explores university students’ perceptions of minorities in Turkey through a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews conducted by students as part of an undergraduate cultural studies course in İstanbul. While students were encouraged to treat interviews as constructed narratives requiring critical interpretation, our analysis reveals that the students’ own questions, assumptions, and conclusions also constituted narratives on minorities in Turkey and needed analysis. The findings trace two overarching, and at times overlapping, trajectories. The first reflects a reproduction of the dominant state-centric, nationalist discourse—portraying minorities as separatist, dangerous, or culturally deficient. The second trajectory reveals moments of critical reflection and potential transformation, where students begin to question and deconstruct official narratives on minorities, engage in acts of ‘unlearning,’ and reconceptualize minority and majority identities. These encounters, though fraught with ideological tension, offer a space for dialogical engagement and reflexive learning. The paper concludes by reflecting on our own experiences as instructors and proposes more ethnography for any project with an agenda of diversity in education, including this course, to deepen students’ engagement with diversity.

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Author Biographies

Setenay Nil Dogan, Yıldız Technical University

Dr. Setenay Nil Doğan is a faculty member in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Yıldız Technical University. Following the completion of her MA thesis on the discourses of Kemalist women, she studied the formations of diaspora nationalism through the case of Circassians in Turkey in her Ph.D. at Sabancı University. Her research has focused on diaspora studies, the intersections of gender, nationalism and militarization, in addition to gender in technology and academia in Turkey.

Kerem Karaosmanoglu, Yildiz Technical University

Dr. Kerem Karaosmanoğlu is currently teaching at Yıldız Technical University, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. He received his PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2006. He has published articles on identity, culture and minorities in Turkey in international and national journals. He is currently researching conspiracy theories and conspiracy mentality.

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