Wednesday Talk

Prof. H. Neşe Özgen

READING THE BORDERS THROUGH THE MINDS OF PEOPLE:
COGNITIVE MAPPING IN A CHOSEN CASE

Prof. H. Neşe Özgen, Department Chair in Okan University Sociology Department was the speaker of the MURCIR Talks of 3 June. Özgen worked in Ege University Literature Faculty Sociology Department until September 2007. She studies on “Improvement and Regional Development”, “Methodological Problems in Social Sciences”, “Gender”, "Border Sociology" and "Garbage". Her book titled “Van-Özalp ve 33 Kurşun Olayı: Toplumsal Hafızanın Hatırlama ve Unutma Biçimleri” has been published in 2003 by TÜSTAV.

                                               

Prof. Özgen talked about the concepts of “border” and “patria”, and the issues such as “reproduction of the border as a narrative” and “consideration of the border as means of production”. She presented the outcomes of a “Cognitive Mapping” research she conducted among high school students in 2002 in two towns in the South Eastern Turkey, Şırnak / İdil and Mardin / Nusaybin. She asked the students to draw two distinct schema/picture according to the questions “Where is your district located in Turkey’s map?” and “Can you draw your district?”. She then evaluated the outcome maps and pictures according to “Cognitive Mapping” technique.