About
The PhD Program in Area Studies at METU is the first of its kind in Turkey, offering a comprehensive program at the PhD level for those interested in regional studies. Established in 2010, this Program could be considered ideal for the graduates of the master's programs of; Eurasian Studies, Asian Studies, Middle East Studies, European Studies, Latin and North American Studies as well as African Studies.
The PhD Program in Area Studies seeks to enhance academic studies on the major regions of the rapidly changing world in terms of history, sociology, culture, politics, political economy and international relations. Students enrolled in this program are expected to work on a region of the world by generating a high level of contextual knowledge as well as an interdisciplinary approach. In other words, the Program intends to improve the quality of in-depth research on historical, socio-cultural, political, economic and diplomatic characteristics of the regions such as Eurasia, East Asia, Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin and North America. To this end, students are expected to build up their knowledge both in; (1) an Area, and (2) a Social Science Discipline. Having an interdisciplinary structure, the Program is not a sub-discipline of any other social science discipline, but a separate program.
It is the Program's expectation that Area Studies will enhance our understanding of the dynamics of change in different parts of the world and their relations with each other. This provides the Program with a global outlook as well as an intellectual capacity to compare different regions in the world. Furthermore, developing new approaches and perspectives on Turkey's multi-dimensional relations with the regions around the world constitutes another objective of the Program.
It is hoped that the Program will contribute to the academic world as well as the policy-making communities in the areas of foreign policy, culture, the mass media, socio-economic life and civil society. On the whole, the Program seeks to contribute to the development of knowledge about areas, which would further our understanding of science and societies.