Scholarship from TUBITAK to our PhD Student Researching the First Women Engineers of Türkiye

ITU Department of History of Science and Technology PhD student Gül Aydın will be conducting studies as a visiting researcher at the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies at Friedrich Alexander University, one of the few departments in Europe focusing on a specialized field, with TUBITAK 2214-A PhD research fellowship.

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) reinforces its leading position in our country in the field of science and technology with new academic achievements. According to the results of the TUBITAK 2214-A PhD research fellowship announced on September 15, ITU Department of History of Science and Technology PhD student Gül Aydın is eligible for a one-year residency as a visiting researcher at the Chair of Science, Technology and Gender Studies at Friedrich Alexander University (FAU STGS). Gül Aydın will carry out her studies at the Chair under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi, one of a handful of scholars in her field. 

First study on the first women engineers of Türkiye

Our student’s PhD thesis “On the First Women Engineers of Türkiye in the Context of Science, Technology and Gender,” conducted under the supervision of ITU Department of Humanities and Social Sciences faculty member Prof. Dr. Tuncay Zorlu, is unique in that no academic study has yet been conducted on women engineers in Türkiye. It is the first time that the first women engineers of Türkiye are being researched extensively as an academic project.

Gül Aydın said the following about her doctoral study covering the period 1927-1955: “My research focuses on the first female students of ITU (including those who did not graduate and those who dropped out) and the women engineers who graduated. Our knowledge about the women engineers our country raised is unfortunately limited; we thus embarked on such a study to fill this gap.”

With this long-term study, our student also aims to develop the “gender historical analysis” category in the history of science and technology studies in Türkiye.

We congratulate our student and wish her success in her studies. 

About Gül Aydın

Gül Aydın completed her undergraduate education at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Department of Anthropology, as first of her class. She completed her master’s degree at Dokuz Eylül University, Department of Museology, between 2015 and 2018, and wrote a thesis titled “A Critical Approach to the Woman Representation: Women’s Museums in Turkey”. In 2017, she worked as an intern at Museum Frauenkultur Regional-International, a women’s museum in Nuremberg, Germany which uses the method of intercultural comparison. Aydın currently continues her doctoral study, which she started in 2019, at ITU Department of History of Science and Technology. Gül Aydın, whose PhD thesis is supported by BAP, actively participates in many events on topics such as women engineers, science, technology, and gender within the scope of ITU’s 250th Anniversary Events.