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Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research

Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research

Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research (S&R, Original Name- Instituut voor Turkse Studies Integratie en Onderzoek) is a non-profit organization recognized by Federal Public Service Justice of Belgium, was founded on 26/6/2019 in Antwerp, Belgium. Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research’ (S&R) contributes to the integration, adaptation of Turkish society living for more than 50 years in Flanders, Belgium through research and education. For children and adults living in a multi-cultural society through Belgium and Turkey, our institute supports their belonging, aspirations, identity, academic success, self-development, self-esteem, and their adaptation into these multi cultures. In an immigrant context, we do research and make projects for the integration of this multicultural society in Belgium. We aim to empower all immigrant groups in Belgium by means of inclusive and innovative projects. We invest on the mutual understanding among all immigrant communities and the host community through intercultural dialogue. Our institution includes 500 students, 25 teachers, 500 parents, and 12 Erasmus interns, exchange staff and 100 voluntary people with high diplomas etc. In our institution, we have an academic advisory committee including 13 academicians (professors, associate professors, etc.) such as Prof. Dr. Sevilay Altintaş (Antwerp University Hospital) Prof. Dr. Kutlay Yagmur (Tilburg University, Culture Studies) and Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Akinci (Rouen University, Linguistics) and Prof. Dr. Orhan Agirdag (Leuven University, Educational Sciences), having so many researches on socio-economical, psychological, linguistic, integration, social inclusion and academic problems of students, youths, parents living in Belgium, Germany, Holland, France, Turkey, where an immigration, cultural heritage and social inclusion are getting a governmental-issue to come up with.

Our institutional body is recognized by Republic of Turkey Turkish Embassy of Brussel, Turkish Consulate General in Brussel and Antwerp, Ministry of National Education of Turkey, Yunus Emre Institute in order to create a legal identity through dialogue and collaboration. Also, through our sponsors, institutional partners, and stakeholders (municipalities, universities, schools, kindergartens, NGOs, local/international initiatives, companies etc.) we try to build an accountable institutional body giving a voice to a well-integrated society. Beyond this, all volunteering initiatives and contributions create self-awareness in the society which is so initial for our social inclusion.

Our mission is to make a sustainable cooperation with institutional environments (parents, students, youths, schools, stakeholders, NGOs, institutions, universities, municipalities etc.) through scientific and institutional partnerships, Erasmus+ partnership, internship. Regarding the needs and expectations of our stakeholders, we develop and implement educational programmes and scientific research process for children and youth in order to support their 21st century skills. Within the framework of 21st Century Learning, we provide learning & innovative skills, information, media, and ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology) skills, life & career skills.

During coronavirus epidemic, teleworking is currently the norm at our institution in the framework of corona measures and guidelines in Belgium. Alternative forms of teaching and learning activities (online classes, projects...) via MS Teams, Zoom, YouTube used mainly with several tools and technical aids that enable us to make our digital educational and social activities interactive.

Our activities are based on educational and societal dimensions. For educational dimensions, we develop and implement educational programmes, curriculum, and instruction for students/youth within the 21st Century Learning environment. We promote an understanding of academic content at much higher levels by weaving 21st century interdisciplinary themes like global awareness and world citizenship, civic literacy and intercultural cooperation and social inclusion, entrepreneurial literacy and networking, and environmental literacy and sustainability. We supervise the exchange students and staff coming through Erasmus+ partnership, internship and we provide supervising service to students with immigrant background for their further educational trajectory. We organize workshops in different cities in Belgium through interactive drama-based or scientific-based activities and online workshops through virtual network tools. We give seminars to the youths/students about the sociological, psychological, educational needs of them such as social inclusion, integration, cultural heritage, bilingual upbringing, youth-rearing practices in immigrant contexts, 21st century skills, multiculturalism, school adaptation, personnel development of youth/students etc. Also, in our institution through Erasmus+ projects, we had Learning, Teaching and Training Activities (LLT) on these issues.

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Şener Uğurlu
Legal Representative

He is the head of the Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research. He is a graduate of Vrije Universiteit Brussels with a degree in educational sciences in 1995 and in economics in 1998. He has been working as a teacher of economy in a high school for more than 20 years. He has always been interested in educational awareness raising activities and the integration between immigrant communities and the host country. He organized Turkish language classes for Belgians and Dutch language courses for Turks in adult education. He actively worked in different non-governmental organizations such as European-Turkish friendship organization and the sociocultural and mutual understanding associations. He was an active local politician as an elected member of Socialist Party, and he was in the Antwerp city council where he was a member of the Education Committee and a chairman of the Finance and Laws Committee between 2007 and 2013. From 2012 to 2018, he was a member of the Antwerp provincial council, where he was also a member of the advisory council of Provincial Education. He is also a Turkish-Dutch translator.

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N. Feyza Altınkamış (PhD)
Institutional Project Coordinator

She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Turkish section and an affiliated researcher at VUB. She has been teaching Turkish at Ghent University since 2011. She is the co-founder of the Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research. Her research interests are mainly acquisition of Turkish as a heritage language, Turkish as a cultural heritage, early bilingualism (Turkish-Dutch children), language practices and family language policy in bilingual families. She is also interested in supporting projects related to child and family bi-literacy activities organized for public.

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Prof. Dr. Johan Vandewalle
Researcher

He is head of the Turkish section at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University, Belgium. He teaches Turkish grammar, language practice and translation. His major research topics are intralingual translation and the development of innovative language teaching materials.

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Sevdağ Kaya (Lecturer)
Researcher

She is a lecturer ar the Turkish section of the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication at Ghent University, Belgium. She teaches Turkish as a foreign language. She is specialised in community interpreting and court translation and court interpreting.

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Ayşegül Yavuz (Project research assistant)

She graduated from Contemporary Turkish Dialects and Literature department. She attended trainings in the field of teaching Turkish to foreigners organized by Yunus Emre Institute and Istanbul University, then she was assigned to the assessment and evaluation exam center by Yunus Emre Institute. In 2016, she worked at UNCRH (The UN Refugee Agency) as a Turkish teacher at Sultanbeyli Refugee Association. She taught Turkish to adults and children at the Child Development Center. She has been living in Belgium since 2019 and is teaching Turkish as a heritage language at the Institute for Turkish Studies, Integration and Research.

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Selen Koyuncu (Project Research Assistant)

She is a 22-year-old fresh graduate from Ghent University. During her master's program in Multilingual Communication (Dutch-French-Turkish) she wrote a master's thesis about the vocabulary development of bilingual Dutch-Turkish children in Flanders. Her hobbies are photography, reading and traveling.

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Rabia Yıldız (Project Research Assistant)

She is a 22-year-old newly graduate from Ghent University. She obtained her master's degree in interpreting (Dutch, German & Turkish) and wrote a master’s thesis about the family language policy of Turkish families in Flanders. Her interests are different languages and cultures.