Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/115676

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Open Access
Analysis of Debussy’s L'après-midi d’un Faune in terms of conducting technique
(2025-06) Bağcı, Atay
This paper examines Claude Debussy’s “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un Faune” from an orchestra conductor’s perspective and gives pointers on how to conduct the music based on the analysis of the score. In the first chapter a short biography of Debussy is presented and background information on the Prélude is given. The second chapter examines the formal outline of the piece, breaking it down into sections and segments; and lays out its harmonic and textural structure. The third chapter builds a segment-based template based on the second chapter’s analysis, and provides a measure-by-measure “conducting grammar“ of the piece.
Open Access
Charting the middle way: varieties of middle power response to economic statecraft
(2025-06) Çiftçi, Nilay Beril
This thesis examines how middle powers navigate the rising use of economic statecraft in world politics. Departing from the existing literature that treats target states as either compliant or defiant, it asks: How do middle powers respond to external economic pressure? The dissertation develops a four-stage continuum of Accommodation, Engagement, Diversification, and Resistance, whose selection is shaped by material cost thresholds, domestic pay-offs, and institutional opportunities. After theorizing the causal logic of each pathway, the framework is tested through comparative empirical analyses that trace policy sequences in different regions and sectors. Building on typological theory-making, this study maps how different combinations of economic costs, domestic incentives, and coalition options drive middle-power responses to economic statecraft and includes a structured comparison that identify twelve observable outcomes that map how states recalibrate trade, investment, and diplomacy when coercion intensifies. The findings show that middle powers rarely face a simple binary choice: they blend and reorder the outcomes within four strategies as incentives, domestic coalitions, and market structures evolve. By bridging economic statecraft and middle power literatures, the thesis advances a much more refined understanding of power asymmetries and offers guidance for elucidating the designation of measured economic tools that anticipate adaptive agency.
Open Access
Value of incorporating customer purchase behaviour in predicting online returns: an integrated anomaly detection approach and coupon distribution
(2025-05) Kaya, Rana
This study explores the influence of customer behavior on product return rates by applying anomaly detection techniques to customer-level transaction data. Using data from a European e-commerce company, various algorithms are used to identify anomalous transactions, which are then incorporated into a logistic regression model to assess their predictive value for returns, with performance measured by AUC. The best-performing model is used in a second phase to guide coupon distribution strategies, estimating return probabilities under both coupon and non-coupon conditions. These estimates inform heuristics policies within a dynamic programming framework to optimize coupon allocation and evaluate revenue outcomes.
Open Access
Interpreting hospital soundscapes through participatory design methods: a case of a pediatric inpatient unit
(2025-05) Orhan, Cemre
Shared spaces in hospitals, such as inpatient units, serve users with diverse and sometimes conflicting needs, making it challenging to create inclusive and satisfying soundscapes. Standardized design approaches often fall short in addressing these complexities. This study explored how Participatory Design (PD) methods could help reinterpret hospital soundscapes by involving users and fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration. Conducted in six phases, the study aimed to identify the promises and pitfalls of integrating PD into hospital soundscape design. In the first phase, spatial and behavioral observations were conducted in a Pediatric Inpatient Unit (PIU), supported by field notes, drawings, and photographs. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews with patients, families, and staff were analyzed using Grounded Theory. These findings informed the third phase, where users participated in a co-design workshop to create their ideal patient room. This design was then refined by architecture experts in phase four, resulting in detailed floor plans, 3D visuals, and animations. In phase five, acoustic experts evaluated user-identified pleasant sounds and selected them as tools for the final design game. In the sixth phase, a second co-design workshop was held where PIU users designed ideal soundscapes using game elements derived from previous phases. This study contributes to the soundscape literature by demonstrating the potential of PD methods to support the creation of more inclusive and empathetic hospital sound environments. It highlights the value of user participation in complex healthcare settings and provides a framework for integrating PD into future hospital soundscape design.
Open Access
Identity construction of queer migrants in their host countries and the role of NGOs
(2025-05) Kızıklı, Mehmet
Drastic changes in life, such as migration, impact identity and shape how one understands their environment. In this process, the host country’s attitude plays a huge role in the adaptation of migrants to their new ecosystem and surroundings. Cultural similarities, attitudes of NGOs, and inclusive policies have an impact on creating safe spaces, along with positive attitudes of members of the host country. While Türkiye ranks second in the world for hosting refugees and other people in need of international protection (UNHCR, 2024), the prejudice against the immigrant community is a notable problem. Combined with persistent hostility toward the LGBTQ+ community, queer immigrants in Türkiye face several challenges in their everyday lives. As this study grounds in a constructive understanding of identity, it aims to understand how queer immigrant individuals negotiate these marginalized identities using Kiesling’s (2022) stance theory. For this purpose, in-depth semi-structured interviews and social media scrollback interviews were conducted with eight queer migrant participants recruited through snowball sampling. Findings reveal the migration experience leads to a deep self-reflection among queer migrants. In their social lives, their queer identity plays a key role rather than their migrant identity. As the intersection of these identities remains complex, language (both Turkish and Lubunca) plays a key role in belonging and identity expression. Participants also emphasized the need for queer-led NGO support that encourages legal awareness, community building, and solidarity.
Open Access
Drawing a life: examining women's graphic life narratives in Turkish literature
(2025-05) Değirmenci, Elif Gülendam
This study examines autobiographical graphic novels, an emerging narrative form in Turkish literature, through the works of female artists. It explores how women have embraced this narrative form, expanded its boundaries, and conveyed their life stories through this hybrid medium from a feminist perspective. These narratives often center not only on the women themselves but also on their mothers, daughters, or grandmothers, as they depict bodies, memories, and personal histories. In doing so, they move beyond the conventions of classical autobiography, opening up a new expressive space in which gender-based experiences gain visibility. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that includes visual arts, literature, and communication studies, the thesis is framed by literary sociology, feminist criticism, graphic narrative theory, and narratology. Using qualitative textual and visual analysis, the study evaluates selected works by Özge Samancı, Gökçe Yavaş Önal, Aslı Alpar, and Burcu Türker in terms of their narrative techniques, themes, and visual language. The analysis reveals recurring themes such as the body, memory, family, mother-daughter relationships, intergenerational experience, social pressure, and female solidarity. These themes show how personal stories gain political meaning through drawing. Including artists in foreign contexts suggests a transnational narrative beyond Turkish literature. By focusing on an underexplored area in Türkiye, this thesis offers a fresh contribution to literary studies. It argues that women use graphic life narratives to express experience and develop critical discourse against patriarchal storytelling, positioning this hybrid medium as artistic and political expression.
Open Access
National role conceptions and nuclear disarmament: a comparative study
(2025-05) Yürük, Bilge
This thesis aims to explore how South Africa, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus decided to give up their nuclear weapons. While much attention has been given to why states build nuclear weapons, less is known about how elites’ role conceptions influence the decision to disarm. Using role theory, this study aims to show how leaders’ national role perceptions influenced their decisions to disarm. This research relies on speeches, letters, press conference records, interviews, and academic studies to examine these cases and highlight common patterns and differences in leadership decisions. Falling within the scope of comparative analyses in foreign policy studies, this study aims to provide insights into the individual-level decision-making dynamics behind nuclear disarmament decisions.
Open Access
Economy’s split from politics and philosophy: the neglect of moral sentiments in economics
(2025-06) Yavaş, Ecenur
Although economics was once a topic of moral philosophy, moral sentiments are considered to be outside of the scope of economics. To understand the reason for this split and to problematize the neglect of moral sentiments in economics, I analyze the works of the early figures of the field: Adam Smith, Sophie de Grouchy, and David Hume. Their works illustrate the formation of economics as a science and the moral and political perspective they employed in arguments and theories on economics. I argue that the split and abstraction of economics from its historical and social context created undesirable consequences. Empirical studies focused on abstract and limited cases rather than general patterns. In addition, neglecting moral sentiments diminishes the discussions on public utility to which the early figures attributed much importance. I analyze the contemporary problems about the split through the works of Samuel Bowles, Thomas Piketty, and Ingrid Robeyns. In the light of this analysis, I argue that morality is not instrumentally but inherently related to economics. Therefore, the split and neglect of moral sentiments in economics cannot be justified.
Open Access
Saudi-Egyptian rivalry for MENA leadership during the Syrian civil war: a role theory approach
(2025-05) Şenol, Zehra Gökçe
This thesis analyzes how states’ conception of the regional leadership role is translated into foreign policy behavior in the Middle East. By taking its theoretical framework from role theory, the thesis hypothesizes that states’ national role conceptions can help shape their foreign policy behavior, as they can provide guidelines for long-term patterns of conduct in foreign affairs. Based on this initial hypothesis, the thesis further argues that aspiring states will likely engage in regional conflicts, as they can create opportunities to enact the role of regional leadership. In pursuit of this foreign policy role, states are also expected to implement particular foreign policy decisions that can help reflect the state’s influence at the regional level. In order to analyze the relationship between regional leadership roles and their performance by states, the case study method is used in this thesis. The two case studies conducted in this project are on Saudi and Egyptian foreign policy behaviors in the Syrian civil war during the 2011-2016 period, and secondary data on the national role conceptions of these states during this period are driven by the data collected by Akbaba and Özdamar (2019). The results of this thesis help contribute to the literature on foreign policy analysis and role theory focused on the Middle East, while also having policy-wise implications for foreign policy decision makers.
Open Access
Armed non-state actors’ foreign policy behavior: a role theoretic approach
(2025-05) Acun, Defne
Armed non-state actors (ANSAs) operate outside of state authority and pursue foreign policy to achieve their objectives in international politics through violent methods. Thus, it is important to understand what shapes ANSAs’ foreign policy behavior. With a role theoretic approach, this thesis explores how these actors perceive their roles in their external relations and conduct foreign policy. Therefore, role theory provides an opportunity to integrate ANSAs in the foreign policy analysis (FPA). As a foreign policy behavior, this thesis focuses on the alliance portfolios of ANSAs. It examines Hezbollah and Hamas’s foreign policy behavior at the initial stages of the Syrian uprising with their engagements in the Axis of Resistance. Accordingly, this thesis applies a content analysis method to identify the foreign policy role conceptions of Hezbollah and Hamas, and examines how these actors locate and perform their foreign policy roles. The findings reveal that these actors have cohesive role conceptions. Depending on the salience of role conceptions, they perform different foreign policy behavior when deciding to show allegiance or leave the alliance. Therefore, this thesis portrays role theory as a significant approach, and salient role conceptions are crucial to understanding ANSAs’ foreign policy behavior.
Open Access
Female British travellers to the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century
(2025-06) Kazak, Zeynep
Travel writing about the Ottoman Empire is a subject that is already understudied but women’s travel writing is even more so. Covering up the two understudied parts of travel writing, therefore, this thesis is a study of British women travellers who had been to the Ottoman Empire at different dates in the nineteenth-century. This thesis will attempt to see the extent to which female travellers were following an Orientalist narrative or not. It will do so, by first establishing patterns associated with Orientalism and reading the accounts of six female travellers against that background, namely Henrietta Liston, Julia Pardoe, Marianne Young Postans, Agnes Ramsay, Fanny Janet Blunt and an anonymous writer. It will also highlight the importance of reading travel accounts through gender, which create different tensions in women’s accounts that were not experienced by male travellers.
Open Access
The role of military-industrial complex in foreign policy making: The United States, Saudi Arabia, and arms sale
(2025-05) Demir, Zeynep
This thesis examines the impact of defense industry lobbying on US foreign policy, focusing on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Using the global arms transfer data, the research analyzes the role of major defense companies in the US in shaping policy outcomes. The study reviews the intersection of domestic politics, economic interest groups, and foreign policy, emphasizing how lobbying influences the decision-making process. Drawing on data from US Senate lobbying records and Congressional reports, the methodology combines qualitative and quantitative techniques, such as correlation analysis, to assess the relationship between lobbying expenditures and arms sales to Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2024. As the choice of case, I focused on arms sales with Saudi Arabia during President Trump’s first term, specifically the 2017 deal worth $110 billion. The thesis explores the historical and political context of the US arms deals and defense industry in foreign policy making, then argues that lobbying by defense industries significantly contributes to their actualization. Even though the qualitative findings support the statement, the correlation analysis brings an unexpected outcome. The amount of money spent on lobbying is insignificant in facilitating arms sales to Saudi Arabia, meaning that even if lobbying expenditures go down, sales can increase. However, the number of lobbyists hired and their relations with policymakers indicate a positive correlation with sales.
Open Access
Foreign policy beliefs of Victory Party chairman Ümit Özdağ: an operational code analysis
(2025-05) Dereli, Aslıhan Ezgi
This thesis examines the foreign policy belief system of Ümit Özdağ, the chairman of the Victory Party (Zafer Partisi), through Operational Code Analysis (OCA) and compares it with a group of European Populist Radical Right-Wing Party (EPRRP) leaders. While the Victory Party has emerged as a significant actor in Turkish politics with its rigid anti-immigration stance and populist-nationalist rhetoric, scholarly attention to its foreign policy orientation remains limited. Drawing on content from Özdağ’s public interviews and speeches, this study employs the ProfilerPlus tool and the Verbs in Context System (VICS) to assess his philosophical and instrumental beliefs. The thesis tests three hypotheses concerning Özdağ’s beliefs on the nature of the political universe, his instrumental beliefs, and control throughout historical development. The findings reveal that Özdağ’s foreign policy worldview is more conflictual and uncooperative than the average EPRRP leader. While sharing some ideological similarities with his European counterparts, such as skepticism toward international cooperation and a strong emphasis on national sovereignty, Özdağ exhibits a particularly antagonistic view of the global system and a less inclined belief towards cooperative strategies. These patterns suggest that while Prof. Özdağ fits within the broader populist radical right-wing party tradition, his foreign policy belief system reflects a distinctive articulation of these ideas. This thesis contributes methodologically by empirically applying OCA in a non-Western context by offering the first systematic leadership-level analysis of a Turkish populist radical right-wing party (PRRP) figure, thereby opening new avenues for comparative populism and foreign policy research.
Embargo
Women’s constitutive representation in Turkey: parliamentary debates on headscarf, abortion and violence against woman
(2025-05) Üzümcü, Fatma Yol
This dissertation critically examines the substantive representation of women in Turkey by analyzing the parliamentary discourses of female MPs on headscarves, abortion, and violence against women. It investigates how these issues are framed, how womanhood is defined, and how such concerns are embedded in broader political narratives. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study explores parliamentary speeches from 2002 to 2023, focusing not only on what is said but how meanings are constructed, contested, and situated within wider debates. The analysis develops along two key dimensions. First, it identifies diverging definitions of womanhood, shaped by ideological, cultural, and party-based positions. Second, it traces how these discourses of womanhood are embedded in broader frameworks—community-based debates (citizenship, belonging, national identity) and practice-based debates (regime, governance, secularism, and democracy). By tracing how these discourses evolve across political parties and over time, the study uncovers the complex dynamics that shape women MPs’ narratives. It argues that women’s political representation is shaped by, and in turn helps shape, macro-level factors and socio-political contexts. The findings challenge the assumption that women in parliament constitute a homogeneous group and contribute to the literature on both substantive and constitutive representation. Ultimately, the study offers a dual analytical framework that links discursive constructions of womanhood to broader ideological and institutional struggles, arguing that substantive representation is inseparable from its constitutive dimension—particularly in dynamic and complex political environments.
Open Access
The role of multisensory experiences on short-term memory retention in simulated cafe environments
(2025-05) Nazzal, Nil
This study investigates how multisensory experiences can enhance short-term memory retention in public interiors, specifically cafes. Previous research has highlighted and emphasized the cognitive benefits of multisensory integration in various settings, including educational institutions and museums. However, there has been limited exploration of memory retention in cafe environments. This research examines the effects of visual, auditory, and olfactory stimuli, both individually and simultaneously, addressing a significant gap in understanding how sensory design influences memory performance in public spaces. A mixed-method experimental design was employed involving 76 adults residing in Ankara, Türkiye. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire and two baseline tests before being randomly assigned to one of four sensory groups: visual, visual and auditory, visual and olfactory, and visual, auditory, and olfactory. The experiment was conducted in a controlled indoor environment that simulated a cafe-like setting. Participants were then given a distraction puzzle followed by an open-ended memory retention task. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis and matrix layout, while quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests, one way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation. The findings indicate that multisensory experiences significantly enhance memory retention compared to single or dual sensory modalities. Additionally, cognitive assessments showed a low positive correlation with memory retention. This research provides important insights into multisensory design in public spaces, aiming to foster the development of more memorable, cognitively engaging, and experiential environments.
Embargo
An approach to exploring biophilic quality, soundscape quality, and psychological restoration in outpatient oncology polyclinics
(2025-04) Alimadhi, Enkela
There is a need for restorative spaces, and biophilic features are recognized as influencing restoration. Mostly, biophilic environments are investigated in isolated features, such as visual connection with nature, mainly in virtual settings, and less is known about the soundscape of such environments. With the aim of investigating clinical environments for restoration, two hospital waiting areas in Oncology Polyclinics are assessed in terms of their biophilic quality, soundscape quality, and psychological restoration. In an alternative approach to the existing studies, this study adopts a between-subjects design with two phases: a field study followed by a laboratory study. In each study, survey-based assessments were employed to collect the data. The results reveal (1) how biophilic quality, assessed as a composite score and feature-based, differs between waiting areas in both field and laboratory, (2) how soundscape quality between waiting areas is evaluated in both field and laboratory in terms of its affective attributes and (3) the effect such qualities have on the psychological restoration of hospital users in terms of affect, mood, and restoration. The thesis is concluded by conducting a statistical analysis to explore the relationship between soundscape descriptors and psychological restoration indicators investigated in both field and laboratory settings. The data gathered informs future investigation research focused on providing healthcare restorative spaces through biophilic interventions in terms of both visual and audio environments. The study acts as a baseline empirical work for future research.
Embargo
The effects of visual stimuli on impulse buying behavior in virtual environments
(2025-04) Demirel, Rümeysa
This study examines the influence of visual stimuli on impulse buying behavior. It aims to investigate the effects of particular visual cues of high-image visual stimuli (H-IVS) and low-image visual stimuli (L-IVS)—organization/density, staging techniques, and lighting—on impulse buying behavior. The research questions focus on how visual stimuli increase impulse buying behavior and how personality traits moderate this relationship. In a virtual environment, eighty-four female participants in the study were shown visual cues of a black leather handbag. Each of the visual cues was shown independently. Surveys measuring impulse buying behavior and consumer reaction to visual stimuli were used to gather data. The results suggest that high-image visual stimuli significantly enhance impulse buying behavior through organization/density, staging techniques, and lighting, but not directly on impulse buying tendencies. The study establishes the complexity of consumer behavior, emphasizing the role of visual stimuli and personality traits. Further research would study different retail settings, try different consumer segments, and examine additional product categories to determine how visual stimuli affect impulse buying.
Open Access
Postmodern affective histories in Sevgili Arsız Ölüm (1983) and Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey (2015)
(2025-05) Kaya, Yeşim
This thesis analyzes two postmodern novels that were published in different periods—Sevgili Arsız Ölüm (1983) by Latife Tekin and Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey (2015) by Özge Samancı—in a comparative framework. It investigates how these Turkish women authors employ postmodern novel genre and postmodern narrative strategies such as magic realism, fragmentation, metafiction, and visual storytelling to construct what this study calls postmodern affective histories. Through such writings and the creation of affective histories, the two authors create feminist affects, reclaim women’s subjectivity, and challenge dominant patriarchal and historical discourses. In doing so, as both authors’ narratives are autobiographical, they also reclaim their agency in the world literary scene where they are otherwise underrepresented or marginalized. Drawing on a theoretical framework that combines approaches from world literature theories, postcolonial criticism, feminist theory, and affect theory, this thesis situates both novels within world literary circuits. This thesis work also incorporates Franco Moretti's “distant reading” approach to highlight how these authors—despite their marginal positioning due to gender, language, and geography—actively contribute to the development and evolution of the postmodern novel genre and global feminist discourse. Ultimately, this study argues that through their protagonists, Dirmit and Özge, and the use of localized postmodern techniques and translations, Latife Tekin’s Sevgili Arsız Ölüm and Özge Samancı’s Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey offer alternative historiographies and enrich our understanding of Turkish women’s literature and presence within a global literary context.
Open Access
A critical analysis of the media representation of the Mazan rape case: patriarchal dynamics in French news media
(2025-03) Tütüncü, İrem Çağıl
The thesis examines how men and women, whether as perpetrators or victims, are represented in crime news narratives. The study aims to investigate how patriarchal dynamics are being reconstructed and disseminated through the media as a cultural norm. Utilizing modern feminist theory and media analysis methods, this study critically examines the news media role in perpetuating gender inequality. A specific rape case from France has been selected as a case study to analyze how gender-based violence is represented in three different French newspapers. The findings contribute to a broader discussion on the structural causes of gender-based violence and the media’s role in shaping public discourse.
Open Access
Exploring self-artist identity through hybrid animation
(2025-03) Özkaya, Faize Nur
This thesis accompanies my experimental animation film, I Was So Afraid Of You Running Away. It explores the development of my visual identity through experimen tation and analog animation techniques. By analyzing key moments in the history of experimental animation, I discovered and applied unique storytelling approaches that shaped my artistic language. Moving away from digital production, the project high lights how analog methods expanded my creative practice. The technical and design aspects of the film are also detailed in this paper.