"Hello, I am Esma Baycan. I am born in Ankara in 1985. After having graduated from Galatasaray University's Department of International Relations, I continued my studies in the Free University of Brussels (ULB) with the support of Jean Monnet scholarship. My interest in political science and international relations has gotten more and more theoretical during my academic life. Like any other Turkish student doing the national entrance examination for the higher education, I could not do justice to my interest in philosophy in feeling the obligation of studying something of a 'market value' and studied as a result international relations. However, when I realized after 7 years of study that political philosophy was my real passion,I could fortunately receive a scholarship from the University of Louvain and do a master's program in philosophy there.
My specific interest is situated in contemporary normative political philosophy. This area of interest reflects on how the social and political life can be better organized in designing 'realistic utopias'. Very limited work is done in this area in Turkey. My subject is a reflection on social cohesion in a context of international migration. As a result of my application for the new research consortium in Switzerland NCCR-On the move, I could start as a doctoral student in the University of Geneva starting from September 2014. And this is thanks to the mobility grant of Yücel Cultural Foundation to make the move from Turkey to Switzerland.
Like any other friends working in the areas of arts, philosophy, culture or music, I also could not come to the point that I am now today without the support of the YKV. Therefore, I am in the hopes of organizing seminars which can permit other young people to discover contemporary normative political philosophy in the framework of the YKV. Let us not forget that another world is always possible… And sharing this with the other young people, in constituting a step forward to that world from within the perspective of ethical theories and political philosophy, can only contribute to their development and as a result, Turkey's further development…"