Acting within the framework of the international programme Scholars at Risk and in collaboration with the Institute of Culture Villa Decius, the Jagiellonian University provided safe working conditions for another refugee researcher, Prof. Folya Atacan from Yildiz Technical University. Similarly to the former SAR scholarship recipient, historian Candan Badem, the Turkish researcher specialising in political science and sociology was persecuted by the government, lost her job and faced the threat of imprisonment.
Prof. Fulya Atacan specialises in political science and international relations, particularly religious movements, youth politics and ethnographic research. She has more than two decades of experience in teaching courses on politics, social change, state and religion in the Middle East, including positions at European universities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Germany. She has published a number of papers in international journals and has significant experience advising students and supporting their research.
Prof. Fulya Atacan has been persecuted since she signed an open letter condemning military action in south-eastern Turkey during the war in Syria and calling for finding a peaceful solution in January 2016. A little over a year later, she was stripped of her position at the Yildiz Technical University and accused of collaboration with terrorist organisations. Due to her status, she cannot work at public universities, and effectively, also private ones. The confiscation of her passport and threat of facing a political lawsuit has forced her to seek help outside of her country.
Scholars at Risk is an international network of academic institutions and individuals which aims to protect oppressed members of the academic community and promote academic freedom. By organising temporary work spaces at partner higher education institutions, the network secures the safety of threatened academics, making it possible for them to continue their work until they are no longer in danger. Scholars at Risk also provides counselling services for researchers and member institutions, organises campaigns for oppressed or imprisoned academics, monitors attacks on the academic community around the world and develops new tools and strategies for promoting academic freedom. Currently, the programme brings together 507 higher education institutions in 39 countries as well as 13 cooperation networks.
