Political Science
Political Science
The Political Science program at Işık University provides an ideal setting for students to study the world of politics under highly qualified faculty members, in the beautiful, natural environment of Şile. Students in this program learn about major concepts of political science such as power, authority, and legitimacy as well as the ideas of equality, freedom and justice. They analyze key political actors such as the state, government, political institutions, political parties, interest groups, and civil society organizations, and explore a range of political systems from democracies to authoritarian or theocratic systems. Students of this program enroll in the same courses as the International Relations program in the first two years of their study. Starting from their third year, they have the opportunity to specialize in the discipline with elective courses such as gender and politics, human rights, and political sociology. The number of departmental courses constitutes only half of the total number of required courses in order to provide students with a multidisciplinary approach.
The academic members of the program hold doctoral degrees from well-respected universities around the world. Their expertise varies from Middle Eastern and Turkish politics, political Islam, democratization, civil-military relations, identity politics, political parties, elections, e-democracy, and business and politics. Their experience provides students with a variety of perspectives in analyzing the political world around them. One of our major goals is to train students who can think critically and act as responsible citizens, using course content to make sense of their political environment. Graduates of the political science program go on to careers in the public and private sectors as well as in civil society organizations, think tanks, and international organizations. They can also pursue graduate degree programs.
The students of this program can study abroad for a semester or a year using the opportunities provided by our exchange-student agreements with various universities in Europe. Students also have the opportunity to enroll in a double major or minor program within the curriculum of Economics, Business Administration and Psychology.