Disability Studies Graduate Thesis Award

RWI Turkey Programme, with cooperation with Boğaziçi University Social Policy Forum and annually grants Disability Studies Graduate Thesis award for master's and Ph.D. theses on issues pertaining to the human rights of people with disabilities. This award aims to encourage young scholars from different fields of social sciences to conduct original empirical disability studies research in Turkish universities while using the human rights framework.

This year marked the third year for this cooperation. Two awards were given to two MA theses: Ahmet Nedim Gündoğar (Department of Special Education, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep) with his thesis ‘Opinions about the Instructional Adaptations for University Students with Visual Impairments’ and Furkan Erdoğdu (Department of Psychology, Istanbul University, Istanbul) with his thesis ‘Identity Constructions of Deaf Adults’ shared this year’s award.

The award ceremony was held online on Human Rights Day 10th of December. Academics, heads of disability research centers in different Turkish universities, disability NGOs representatives, and journalists were invited to the event. The award ceremony was organized online due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and around 40 people participated in the event. In the award ceremony, each winner presented their theses to the audience. Questions & answers session followed the presentation. During the award ceremony, two sign language translators translated all the ceremony into Turkish sign language.

The award ceremony was also featured in a column by Hurriyet writer Ayşegül Domanic Yelce date on 14.12.2020. You can access the author's news on the subject via the link below.

https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/aysegul-domanic-yelce/engellilik-calismalari-lisansustu-tez-odulleri-41687751