Dr. Ahmet Murat Aytaç
Zur Person
Ahmet Murat Aytaç is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. He received his PhD in Political Science from Ankara University in 2009. His research interests deal with issues of human rights theory, contemporary political theory and electoral studies. Besides this, he was an Administrative Board member at the Center of Human Rights in Ankara University for some time. After the very destructive earthquake in Van at the end of 2011, he decided to teach temporarily in Van Yuzuncu Yil University to be in solidarity with the academicians who decided to stay . He taught there between January 2013 and December 2015. During the time he stayed in Van, he had the chance to collaborate with the CSOs operating in the Southeastern Region of Anatolia where intense human rights violations were observable. He worked as a trainer of human rights activists and an observer in the cities in the region in collaboration with bar associations, the Human Rights Association of Turkey, the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, and the Human Rights Joint Program of Turkey.
Hence, he was not only an academician who is interested in the theory of human rights as a research interest, but he also made an effort to merge his theoretic studies with an endeavor to be a part of human rights activism. He returned back to Ankara University in 2015 and continued to carry out his studies with this spirit. In 2016, he signed a public petition declared for stopping military operations conducted by Turkish army in the southeast region of the country. To point out to the gross human rights violations committed during those operations, the title of the text was deliberately selected as “We will not be a party to this crime!” Like most of the other signatories, he faced many formal and informal sanctions, and finally he was expelled from the department that he had been working for nearly 20 years by a government decree in 2017, and banned from doing academic jobs. During 2017-2020 process, he gave online courses, wrote scholarly articles, and opinion pieces for various journals. And in February 2020 he started to study at Bremen University as a grant holder of the Fellowship Program for at-risk Scholars of the State of Bremen.
Publikationen und Vorträge
Publikationen
A. Books
- Göçebe Düşünmek: Deleuze Düşüncesinin Kıyısında (Nomadic Thinking: On the Shores of Philosophy of Deleuze), İstanbul: Metis Yayınları, 2014
- Kitlelerin Ruhu: Siyasal ve Sosyal Tahayyülde Kalabalıklar (The Spirit of Masses: Crowds in Political and Social Imagination), Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2011
- Ailenin Serencamı: Türkiye’de Aile Fikrinin Oluşumu (The Adventure of Family: Making of the Idea of the Modern Family in Turkey), Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2007
B. Book Chapters:
- “In Search of an Alternative Perspective on Minority Rights and Minority Group Formation: Re-politicizing Non-territorial Autonomy”, Kurds in Turkey, ed. E. Nimni, E. Aktoprak, London: Palgrave, (To be published in December, 2018)
- “Dünya Görüşü ve İdeoloji”, (Worldview and Ideology), Siyaset: Kavramlar, Kurumlar, Süreçler, (Politics, Concepts, Processes), ed. Yüksel Taşkın, İstanbul: İletişim, 2014, pp. 105-137
- “Türkiye’de Ailenin Tarihsel Dönüşümü: 1925-2010”, (Historical Transformation of Family in Turkey: 1925-2010), Günümüzde Türkiye’de Toplumsal Yapı ve Değişim, (Social Structure and Change in Contemporary Turkey), eds: Faruk Alpkaya, Bülent Duru, Ankara: Phoenix Yayınevi, 2012, pp. 299-323
- “Hakikat ve Siyaset ya da Hakikati Savunma”, (Truth and Politics or the Defence of the Turth) Hakikat ve İnsan Hakları, (Truth and Human Rights), ed. Özkan Ağtaş, Bişeng Özdinç, Ankara: Dipnot Yayınları, 2012, pp. 299-323
C. Articles:
- “Lifestyle and Rights: A Neo-secular Conception of Human Dignity”, Philosophy and Social Criticism, Forthcoming in 2017,
- DOI: 10.1177/0191453716682373
- “Akademik Özgürlüklerin Öznesi Kimdir?”, (Who is the Subject of the Academic Freedoms?),MülkiyeDergisi, 2016, Volume 40, Issue 3
- “Temsil, Adalet ve İstikrar”, (Representation, Justice and Stability) MülkiyeDergisi, 2014, Volume 38, Issue 1
- “Bilge Köyü Katliamı: Güncel Siyasal Tartışmalarda Toplumsa Sorunların Temsil Edilme Biçimleri Hakkında Bir Değerlendirme”, (The Massacre of Bilge Village: A Short Evaluation on the Forms of Social Problems’ Representations in the Current Political Debates), Ankara Universitesi SBF Dergisi, 2010, 65/1
- “Türkiye’de Şansın Terbiye Edişine Geçiş: Mehmed Cavid Bey’in İhsaiyat Kitabı”, (Transition to ‘Taming of Chance’ in Turkey: Mehmed Cavid’s Book of Statistics ), Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, 2007, 62/3
- “1960 Sonrası Düşünüşte Siyaset ve Toplum İlişkileri: Berkes, Küçükömer ve Mardin Üzerine Bir Deneme”, (State and Society Relations in Sociological Thinking after ‘60s: An Essay on Berkes, Küçükömer and Mardin), 2006, Toplum ve Bilim, Number: 106.
A complete publication list can be found here.
Forschungsprojekte
Ongoing Projects:
- Gross Human Rights Violations During the State of Emergency Period (2016-2018) in Turkey (Supported by Frederick Ebert Stiftung Foundation)
Project Manager (2015-2017):
- Social Impact Analysis of the Activities of the CSOs in Turkey, (Supported by Civil Society Development Center of Turkey)
Academic Advisor and the Project Manager (2012-2014):
- Monitoring of the Implementation of the Judgments of the ECtHR, with Assis. Prof. Kerem Altıparmak (Supported by European Union)
Survey Assistant (2008):
- Civil Society Dialogue Project: Bringing Workers together from Turkey and European Union, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Theo Nichols & Prof. Dr. Nadir Suğur (Supported by European Union).
Lehrerfahrung
Graduate Courses:
- Radical Ideas in Pedagogy ( Upcoming Winter Semester, Universität Bremen, with Prof. Dr. Betul Yarar)
- Right and Violation: A Critique of Violence (Frei Universität Berlin, 2019-2020, Winter Semester).
- Theory of Human Rights (2012-2017)
- Contemporary Debates in Post-Structuralist Political Thought (2012-2017)
- Masses and Politics (2010-1015)
- Difference and Becoming in the Political Thought (2015-2016)
- History of the Political Thought: From Plato to Derrida (2015-2017)
Undergraduate:
- Political Psychology (2016)
- Turkish Politics (2013-2015)
- Statistical Analysis in Political Sciences (2009-2013)