RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Nazmiye Yağcı
Nazmiye was born in Germany. She went through a religious education system in high school. Due to her interest in visual arts, she took painting, photography and graphic design courses and became a graphic designer. While she was working, she studied at the Faculty of Divinity in Istanbul University. She then became a graduate student in the philosophy of religion. Her MA thesis is about “New Atheism” because of her interest in Non-Religious (Lâ-Dini) worldviews. She is still a PhD student at Istanbul University Social Sciences Institute and continues her studies on Non-Religious (Lâ-Dini). She is also a research assistant in the TÜBİTAK supported research project Non-Religious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye: Non-Religious Searches in a Changing Social Structure (NBPT).
Elif Yönden
Elif Yönden is a research assistant in the Non-Religious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) research project. In 2020, Elif completed her BA with a high honors student degree at Ankara University, Department of Sociology. In her final year of undergraduate, she worked as an undergraduate scholarship student in the TÜBİTAK – Spiritual Research Project in Türkiye with Dr. Kurtuluş Cengiz and Dr. Önder Küçükural. In the same years, she took part in voluntary work in non-governmental organizations such as the Flying Broom Foundation and SGDD-ASAM. After graduating, she started her master’s degree at Ankara University, Department of Folklore, but decided to continue her career in the discipline of sociology and changed her major to sociology in 2021. Elif, who is still doing her master’s degree, is interested in the research areas of; sociology of religion, sociology of gender, and sociology of education.
Nesibe Demir
Nesibe Demir is a PhD student in Sociology and a teaching fellow at the University of Ibn Haldun. She received her Master’s Degree in Sociology from Ibn Haldun University with the thesis titled “The Role of Space and Emotions in the Experiences of Muslim Women: Hanımlar İlim ve Kültür Derneği (HIKDE)” in 2020. Her graduate research explored the role of space and emotions in the experiences of Muslim women in relation to the debates on Islamism and the public sphere in Türkiye. She also took part as a scholarship student in the scientific research project titled “Experiences of “Islamist” Women from 1960s to Today in the Context of Religion, Social Space and Emotion” conducted between 2019-2021. Her research interests include the sociology of religion, religious/nonreligious identity, politics, anthropology and sociology of emotions, women studies, youth studies, and ethnography of space and place. Nesibe is a research assistant in Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) research project.
Betül Tozlu
Betül Tozlu is a research assistant in Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) research project. She finished her undergraduate studies in Sociology at Marmara University, and she took her masters degree in Sociology at Ibn Haldun University with the thesis titled ‘Digital community, fan spaces and gendered emotions: An analysis on Korean pop music (K-POP) fandom in Türkiye’. She is continuing her doctoral studies at the same university and has been working as a teaching fellow since 2019. Before joining the NBPT team, she worked for the research project called ‘Migration, Change and Sense of Belonging in Başakşehir’ as a research assistant between 2020-2022. Betül’s research interests focus on sociology and anthropology of emotion, space and digital space studies, sense of belonging and memory studies, cultural studies and culture industry and youth studies.
Mehmet Ali Başak
Mehmet Ali Başak is the project coordinator and research assistant for the Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) research project. He is originally from Türkiye, where he completed his BA with honors at the Middle East Technical University. He then received a full scholarship from the Qatar Foundation to study for a master’s degree in Contemporary Muslim Societies and Thought at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He chose to undertake a second MA degree in Religious Studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland to enhance his academic background and research skills. His MA project at Memorial was titled “The Formation of Muslim Identities in Canadian Offline and Online Spaces”. Mehmet is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa. Mehmet also works as a project research assistant and a member of the Student Caucus for the Nonreligion in a Complex Future (NCF) Project, led by Professor Lori Beaman from the University of Ottawa.
His main research interest for his work at the University of Ottawa is in ‘Nonreligion in Türkiye” with an emphasis on the “Transition from Religion to Nonreligion in Türkiye?” His doctoral project aims to investigate the foundations of nonreligious ideas as well as the extent of their sociological influence on everyday life. He particularly focuses on the existing nonreligionization narratives from the children of religious families in Türkiye. Drawing upon one year-long fieldwork in Türkiye, Mehmet attempts to shed light on the transformation of religion in the everyday lives of Turkish people by focusing on nonreligious practices and beliefs within the newly emerging conceptual framework of nonreligion
Zeynep Aslan
Zeynep Aslan is a PhD student and research assistant in “Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye” (NBPT) project. In undergraduate years she had a double majored in Theology and Literature departments at İstanbul University. She finished her MA in Sociology of Religion in the same university. Her MA thesis titled “Muhafazakar Kesimin Değişen Tüketim Alışkanlıkları” (Changing Consumption Habits of the Conservatives). She is continuing her PhD in Sociology of Religion at İstanbul University. Before becoming part of the NPBT team she worked as a researcher in the “Social Change and Religion” workshop and “Secularization and Changing Religiosity Practices” project. Her research interests focus on changing religious practices and nonbelief in Muslim societies.
Dicle Paşa
Dicle Paşa is a PhD Candidate in Departmant of Sociology at Ankara University. She completed English Language and Literature BA at Hacettepe University. She received her Master’s Degree from the Department of Sociology, Women and Gender Studies at Hacettepe University. Her Master Thesis titled “The Role of the Religion Over Arab Alevi Women and Reconstruction of the Patriarchy” (2019). She speaks Arabic and English. She is the translator of the Verónica Gago’s work, Feminist Enternasyonel (2022). She took part as a translator in the research project of Survey Report on Determining the Needs of Syrian Women Applying to Women’s Health Counselling Centres Related to Services in Reproductive Health and Gender-Based Violence. She also took part as a translator in the research titled “I Didn’t Keep Silent, Let Other Women Do Not Be Silent”. Gender-Based Violence and Discrimination: Experiences of Syrian Refugee Women Living in Ankara. She was an outreach in the Key Refugee Groups Project (coordinated by UNFPA and ECHO). She worked as volunteer in the ten weeks “Gender Workshop” in the Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants (ASAM, Al-Farah, The Office of Hüseyin Gazi). Her research interests include Sociology of Gender, Feminist and Queer Theory, Sociology of Religion and Middle East Studies, Sociology of Politics and of Literature. Dicle is a research assistant in “Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) Research Project”. (BİÇABA-Birlikte Çalışıp Birlikte Başaracağız Burs Programı).
PREVIOUS RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Zeynep Kübra Kılıç
Zeynep Kübra Kılıç is research assistant for the Nonreligious Beliefs and Practices in Türkiye (NBPT) research project. She finished her BA studies in Istanbul 29 Mayıs University, Faculty of Theology. During her BA studies she also completed the academic support program held by ISAM (Islamic Research Center), named LADEP (Undergraduate Academic Support Program). She is studying for her master’s degree in Sociology of Religion at Ibn Haldun University. She speaks Arabic and English and is learning Persian and Hebrew. Religiosity and nonreligiousness in Türkiye are her current field of interest.
Berfin Atlı
Berfin was born in Diyarbakır and earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in General Sociology and Methodology at the same university. Her research interests include Gender Studies, Queer Methodology, Feminism, Sound Studies, Social Memory, and Cultural Memory. Berfin has published work in various outlets and has been involved in projects with different non-governmental organizations. Recently, she worked as an Oral History Coordinator at the Research Institute on Turkey (RIT), focusing on issues like confronting the past, social trauma, human rights violations, and recent history. She is now working as a Project Coordinator at the Social Policy, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation Studies Association (SPoD).