Presentation of the team

The Contemporary Studies division brings together research on contemporary Turkey, broadly defined from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the present day. It is currently headed by Gabrielle Angey (IFEA, Université Paris Dauphine – PSL/IRISSO).

It brings together researchers from various disciplines (anthropology, political science, sociology, geography, urban planning) around three main research teams:

• The Observatory of Turkish Political Life (OVIPOT) focuses on issues related to political sociology and Turkish foreign policy.
• The Istanbul Urban Observatory (OUI) is dedicated to studying the country’s urban dynamics.
• The Migration and Mobility Research Unit (AMIMO) works on the study of migration in Turkey.

In addition, researchers in the Contemporary Studies unit work on the following cross-cutting research areas:

• Mobilizations and social movements
• Heritage and memory
• Environment
• Seismic risk and earthquakes
• Gender
• Kurdish studies
• Contemporary Arab presence in Turkey
• Turkish-African relations

Publications

The teams in the Contemporary Studies unit regularly publish articles, reports on scientific activities, and urban field trips on the Blogs of the two observatories, the OUI blog and the OVIPOT blog, and on the AMIMO blog.

The Contemporary Studies unit is actively involved in the publication of the European Journal of Turkish Studies through its members serving on the journal’s editorial board.

Hosting Interns

Fulfilling its mission of welcoming and training in a context of increasing applications, the IFEA welcomes interns throughout the year (except for the month of August) within the Contemporary Studies unit, based on their applications.

In 2021, the Contemporary Studies unit reformed its intern recruitment policy to adapt to the diversity of profiles, to better support students within the IFEA, and to facilitate the integration of these interns into the unit’s research activities.

From the Master’s level onwards, three different types of internships are now offered:

• Thesis support internships for students completing their Master’s degree or who have finished their research thesis and wish to enroll in a doctoral program in the coming year;
• Master’s thesis support internships for Master’s students working on Turkey; and an introductory research internship for students who do not have a research thesis to write and are not necessarily aiming for a career in research.
• Interns participate in the IFEA’s scientific activities during their internship, present the progress of their research at the end of the internship, and contribute to promoting IFEA’s resources in various ways.

For more information on application procedures and the tasks required of interns, please consult this page.