What it is like to be a philosopher in Turkey

This is the eighteenth installment of The Cocoon Goes Global, a series that gives a sense of what the philosophy profession looks like outside of the Anglophone West. Today's entry is by Dr. Saniye Vatansever, Assistant Professor at Bilkent University. 

Disclaimer: I am a Turkish woman who taught in several English-medium public and private universities in Turkey. Hence I will write from a particular point of view (I might be positively biased towards the country) and only about English-medium universities in Turkey. I assume the reader of this piece is a foreigner who might seek employment in one of the English-medium universities in Turkey. Even though the title reads as “What it is like to be a philosopher in Turkey”, the main objective of this piece is to inform potential foreigner job candidates, who have no (or very little) knowledge about the country and/or the academic atmosphere they might join in. That is why I will focus on what I take to be some of the best and worst aspects of being a philosopher in an English-medium university in Turkey.

Advantages of being a philosopher in Turkey

Beautiful country, good food, nice people: Turkey is a very vibrant and beautiful country with rich history and diverse culture, delicious cuisine, and hospitable people. Every region has its unique culture, historical and natural sightseeing sides and traditional delicious meals and deserts (yes, baklava is Turkish!). Due to its geographical location, one can also easily travel to other European and Asian countries for touristic and academic purposes. And if you are a cat or a dog person, this is the country for you as there are street cats and dogs everywhere. It is not uncommon to see cat and dog food left at the corners of the streets for them. I would recommend you to see the documentary called Kedi (cat in Turkish), if you haven’t already.

Safety: One might worry that Turkey is not safe. It is worth noting that just like in many metropolitan cities, how safe you are depends on the neighborhood you live in. Having lived in Chicago for 7 years, I can say that I feel much safer in Istanbul and Ankara than I felt in Chicago. This might be because I live in relatively safer neighborhoods in those cities, while the crime rate in Chicago is generally very high especially around the university campuses.

Free on campus housing: Most English medium universities in Turkey (such as Bilkent University, Bogazici University, Middle East Technical University and Koc University) offer on campus housing for their faculty members. This means that you get to live in very protected and nice campuses free of charge, except for the monthly paid utilities. Not only the campuses but also their surrounding neighborhoods are also quite safe. It is so convenient to live in a walking distance to work.

Low Teaching Load and Research Funding: If you get a full-time faculty position in one of the English medium universities in Turkey, the teaching load will be in the range of 2-1 to 3-3. In private universities the classes are not too large, maximally 25 students. Although not common, it is possible to get TA's for some classes. In the state universities the classes are larger, but the teaching load there is 2-2 and you’d have teaching assistants who will be responsible for grading, etc. 

Dynamic Philosophical Atmosphere: There is an increasing interest towards philosophy in Turkey. Almost all major municipalities organize philosophy talks, which are very well attended by (mostly retired) ordinary citizens, students from other departments, non-philosophers as well as independent scholars. Besides, there are some NGO’s that organize philosophy talks, summer schools, and philosophy classes (specifically for children or high school students or university students or general public). Academics are usually invited to present their work to such audiences. In addition to these public philosophy events, organized by institutions outside of academia, philosophy departments all around Turkey regularly organize various international philosophy conferences. Pretty much all philosophy departments in English medium universities organize monthly colloquia and annual workshops and conferences. So, there are plenty of opportunities to meet with Turkish and international philosophers both in and outside of academia.

Unpredictability of life in Turkey: Turkey is the land of surprises. While walking on a random street in Istanbul, you might encounter a beautiful bookstore or a historical place. Things also change very fast in Turkey. A neighborhood that was popular a year ago, might be out now or vice versa.

Some may think that unpredictability is a disadvantage, but who likes boring predictable life, right? If you enjoy little and not so little surprises, as well as the change of rules and regulations every year, you will like it here, very much.

Disadvantages of being a philosopher in Turkey

Job security: While both public and private universities recruit non-Turkish academics, they have different rules and regulations regarding requirements and contracts. There are also differences about the renewal periods of Turkish and foreigner faculty contracts. Full-time Turkish faculty members in public universities are considered to be civil servants. While assistant professors work on contracts, Turkish associate professors and full professors in state universities have tenure.

For foreigners, on the other hand, the contracts are renewed either annually or biannually both in state and private universities. As long as the faculty members make sufficient academic progress and satisfy the research expectations of their university, which can vary drastically from institution to institution, they usually have no problem with the renewal of the contracts.

Private universities do not have a tenure system. Hence neither Turkish nor non-Turkish academics can have permanent positions there. Despite lack of legally protected job security, I would like to note that there are non-Turkish philosophers who have been employed for over 10 years both in private and state universities in Turkey.

Bureaucracy: There is no doubt that everyone has to deal with some level of Turkish bureaucracy in Turkey but unfortunately foreigners might have to deal with it more often than the Turks as they will need work permit, residence permit, etc, and have to go to state offices where people do not speak English. Sometimes the universities handle the work permit, which simplify things but one might have to figure out how to get a residence permit for a spouse by themselves, which I hear can be very complicated, expensive, and difficult.

When you add the general casual and easy going attitude of the administrators, there is a lot of disorganization at various levels of administration. So, you are likely to experience delays and mistakes on your paperwork and deal with various problems in your daily encounter with the people, such as a typo in your name, which can lead to more bureaucracy, not getting what you ordered online, etc.  

My friends who had to deal with Turkish bureaucracy recently complained about the stress caused by the unpredictability and the uncertainty in dealing with the bureaucracy in Turkey. In order to remain sane, I would recommend you to ask the help of a local person who knows the system, and accept what you cannot change and relax. 

Promotion: Since all bureaucratic procedures is arduous and long in general, promotion process can be really difficult and long for everyone in Turkey as there are two different sets of conditions on needs to satisfy in order to get promoted. One set of conditions determined by the university and another set of criteria determined by YOK (the Highest Education Council). The Council of Higher Education (YOK) coordinates and governs the higher education institutions in accordance with the Turkish Constitution and the Higher Education Laws.

In universities, appointments and promotions are made on the basis of the minimum requirements set by the Council of Higher Education and the university senate. So, in addition to YOK’s promotion criteria, one needs to satisfy each University’s unique criteria for promotion.

Once you satisfy all the requirements set both by YOK and the university, you can then start the bureaucratic procedures, which can take years because you have to apply to the Inter-university Council (UAK) for equivalence. Note that you need to prove that all the degrees you earned abroad is equivalent to the corresponding degrees in Turkish educational institutions. (http://www.uak.gov.tr/) Thus, what appears to be a straightforward and easy process can be really difficult and exhausting in practice.

Devaluation of Turkish Lira: As of today, 1 Dollar is worth almost 6 Turkish Lira, hence imported products can be very expensive. The cost of living is also getting worse. Nonetheless, a full-time position at an English teaching university provides a decent salary and comprehensive fringe benefits including free on campus housing, private health insurance and personal research fund. 

Language barrier:  Even though we start taking English classes in 4^th grade in Turkey, since those classes are focused on the grammar rather than speaking and writing, and because Turkish language has very little in common with the English language, Turkish young people have problems speaking fluent English. While foreigners would not have problem communicating on campuses and certain upper-class neighborhoods in metropolitan cities where the majority can speak and/or understand English, in other cities and neighborhoods they might need a translator to communicate with the local people.

The ability to speak some Turkish might be necessary especially in the rare but critical moments, such as when dealing with police, security and some emergency services. So, I would recommend residents to try learning some Turkish.  

Cultural barrier: Turkish culture is the true amalgamate of East and West. Even though we are superficially exposed to western culture, history, and philosophy in various mediums, there are deep Eastern and Arabic influences in Turkish culture and the majority of the university students are not sufficiently familiar with the history of European countries and Christian religion, which are essential to understanding the philosophical debates in the history of Western philosophy in their proper context.

While in some philosophy departments Islamic and eastern philosophy courses are offered, all philosophy departments, where the language of instruction is in English, predominantly offer courses in Western philosophy.

That is why while teaching history of Western philosophy courses, one often needs to spell out the religious, cultural and historical references of the relevant period. For example, while a regular American student would not need an explanation of the genesis story from the Bible while discussing Kant’s interpretation of that story, a Turkish student would certainly need that reference to be explained in more detail.

Similarly, you might experience culture shock because even though Turkish people are warm and generous, as mentioned before they are generally quite relaxed and easy going. Rules are often flexible and not taken seriously. This might be nice at first, but it might also be irritating, especially when you need people to be somewhere at a particular time or need them to get things done urgently.

Despite the initial culture shock and all the disadvantages, though, if you embrace the culture and keep a good sense of humor, I believe you can adapt to life in Turkey and even love it![1]

[1] I would like to thank Roxanne Jones and Nicholas Di Bella, who recently moved to Turkey, for sharing their own experiences and insightful comments on this piece.

Comments

[Paul Moloney]

Great to hear about the philosophical atmosphere in Turkey!

[Bill Wringe]

Thanks for this informative post, Saniye. As someone who is currently going through the promotion process in Turkey, there are a couple of things that may be worth saying that may make things seem a bit less daunting (and perhaps also help anyone who is already here).

One is that although it can take a fair bit of time to get one's degree certificates certified as being equivalent to their Turkish counterparts, there's no need to wait until one has satisfied the other requirements for promotion before doing so. (In fact, if you think you will be working in Turkey for a while, there's no reason not to start this process as soon as you are settled here.)

A second is that although there are indeed two sets of requirements to meet, this isn't so different from many other systems. One way of thinking of the state requirement - called the docentlik - is that it's analogous to a German 'habilitation'. And again, you can apply for it as soon as you meet the requirements: while a good university will have further requirements for promotion to associate professor, you don't need to wait to satisfy those requirements before applying for your docentlik. (It's probably also worth saying that anyone who is a reasonably research active philosopher should find themselves meeting these requirements more or less as a matter of course: certainly anyone who had a plausible case for tenure in the US would be likely to meet them quite quickly.)

In short - the system is a bit cumbersome, but (as someone who has grumbled about it a fair bit) I'm not convinced it's significantly worse - at least in my own institution - than similar processes elsewhere.

[Bill Wringe]

While I'm here - there certainly are foreign philosophers who have had jobs here for 10 years: I'm one of them! In fact, I've been here since 2000, and there are at least a couple of colleagues who have been part of the anglophone philosophy community for longer than that.

It can really be an excellent place to pursue a philosophical career: during the time I've been here, I've turned down two continuing posts in the UK on the grounds that in terms of pay, conditions, and overall quality of life, I was better of here than I would be there. (Now, that is partly influenced by 'two-body problem' concerns and the fact that my wife is an EU national, but that's far from being the whole story.)

[historygrrrl]

Thank you, Saniye, for this wonderful post! I am only sorry that I did not see it earlier.

This is very good information for foreigners, such as myself, hoping to expatriate to Turkey!