On December 16, 28 teams of students from the Faculty of Economics, Administrative and Social Science’s GE443, GE444, GE445 and GE446 courses presented their transdisciplinary senior projects to four panels of experts from relevant fields. The panels evaluated the teams’ work and chose a winning project in each course.
FEASS GE courses provide an arena for senior FEASS students to conduct project management in transdisciplinary teams. Students in all four of this academic year’s fall semester courses – three of which focused on development-related issues – worked on their team projects intensively throughout the semester.
Students in GE443, “Social Challenges in Turkey,” analyzed a multiplicity of social challenges by integrating perspectives from different disciplines. A project on “The Dark Side of Neoliberalism: Slum Youth and Drugs” was awarded first prize by the panel of judges for that course.
In GE444, “Human Mobility and Development,” students looked at the issue of increased human mobility and its effect on development. The panel judged the project “Stateless People” as the best of the semester in the course.
The GE445 course “Power and Development” explored how power works in the global political economy. First prize went to the project “Can the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Be an Alternative to the EU for Turkey?”
In GE446, “Development: Critical Perspectives and New Directions,” students approached the issue of development from a critical viewpoint that focused on both the potential and the challenges of development. The course also covered new aspects of the understanding of development, from “sustainability” to “de-growth.” The final panel of the day awarded first prize to a project on “The Relationship Between Revolution and Development in the Light of the Jasmine Revolution.”
At a reception held in the FEASS atrium following the panels, students, panelists and GE course lecturers celebrated the completion of a challenging but successful semester of interdisciplinary teamwork. GE projects have continued to impress expert panelists since the launch of the courses in 2012.
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