Since it’s establishment in 1996, BİLGİ is known for adopting an open-minded position in important social and political debates in Turkey and has been involved in discussions and debates concerning the EU integration process but also on sensitive social and societal issues. The “European vocation” of Bilgi has in fact led to the launch of the Centre for European Studies which, later in 2007, became the “European Institute”.
The European Institute undertakes in-depth research on EU politics and policies with a specific emphasis on diversity and pluralism. Building on EU expertise acquired within BİLGİ, the European Institute is now the primary focus for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration in the politics, legal systems, society and economies of Europe. To this end, the European Institute supports interdisciplinary academic programs on EU studies and undertakes interdisciplinary research with primary focus on themes such as processes of integration, Europeanization, multiculturalism, diversity, and construction of European identities.
Besides many other EU funded and international projects, the Institute has been awarded a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Award (2013), three Jean Monnet Chairs, and several other Jean Monnet modules and Learning EU at School Projects. The European Institute is also active in outreach projects and is involved in training Turkish high school students and teachers in fundamental values linked to EU such as human rights, pluralism and diversity. İstanbul Bilgi University’s European Institute has been selected for “Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence” with the “European Values at School – EUducate” project.
Having received a very high score during the evaluation process, BİLGİ thus became the fourth university to be nominated as “Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence “ in Turkey as a result of intensive academic work on European Integration since 1996. The European Institute of Istanbul Bilgi University has recently been involved in the conduct of an ERC Advanced Grant research project on youth radicalisation in Europe, together with the ongoing institutional links with the European University of Viadrina, CIFE in Nice, EUI in Florence.
Team members
Ayhan Kaya
Ayhan Kaya is the Director of the European Institute. He is a Professor of Politics and Jean Monnet Chair of European Politics of Interculturalism at the Department of International Relations, İstanbul Bilgi University; and a member of the Science Academy, Turkey. He received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick, England. He is the principal investigator for the ERC project titled “Nativism, Islamophobism and Islamism in the Age of Populism: Culturalisation and Religionisation of What is Social, Economic, and Political in Europe”. Kaya was previously a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence, Italy, and adjunct lecturer at the New York University, Florence between 2016 and 2017. He previously worked and taught at the European University Viadrina as Aziz Nesin Chair in 2013, and at Malmö University, Sweden as the Willy Brandt Chair in 2011.
Özge Onursal Beşgül
Özge Onursal-Beşgül is Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations and Vice-Director of the European Institute at Istanbul Bilgi University. She graduated from the Department of International Relations, Bilkent University, and holds an MA in International Relations from Istanbul Bilgi University, an MSc in European Politics and Governance from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in European Politics and International Relations from Marmara University. Her research interests include international organisations, European integration, the Europeanisation of education policy and the social construction of Europe. She has published articles on Europeanisation, education policy and the Bologna Process. She was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair in 2022 with her project BILGINormsEU and is the co-coordinator of the Jean Monnet module with Dr Mehmet Ali Tugtan (FlipEU), which launched Istanbul Bilgi University's first MOOC on the EU in September 2019.
Didem Balatlıoğulları
Didem Balatlıoğulları is Project Officer at European Institute of İstanbul Bilgi University. She graduated from İstanbul Bilgi University with a BA degree in Management of Performing Arts and received her MA degree from BİLGİ’s Cultural Management program. Her research areas are cultural policies, cultural diplomacy, and minority studies.