05/01/2026
Sabancı University faculty member Dr. Banu Turnaoğlu Açan and University of Essex faculty member Dr. Camila Vergara have signed a significant international research collaboration agreement with their joint project, "Empowering Women in Legal Research for Democratic Resilience and Constitutional Renewal in Turkey," supported by the British Council International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF). The project aims to strengthen academic collaboration between Sabancı University and the University of Essex and to contribute to discussions on democratic resilience and constitutional issues in Türkiye from a gender perspective.
Led by two political theorists working in the fields of constitutional thought, republicanism, and democratic theory, the project focuses on Türkiye's current constitutional and democratic problems. Türkiye's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, the increase in gender-based violence, and the weakening of institutional checks and balances raise serious concerns about women's rights, political representation, and constitutional guarantees.
In this context, the project addresses women as active actors in constitutional and democratic transformation. The two-year project aims to: conduct capacity-building and training programs for women working in the fields of law and civil society; support long-term research and leadership capacity for early-career researchers working in constitutional law, democratic participation, and gender equality; and produce research that will contribute to policy-making processes on gender, constitutional reform, and democratic resilience. The academic outputs produced will be shared with the public both nationally and internationally. This collaboration aims to contribute to strengthening a more inclusive constitutional culture in Türkiye and to establish a stronger link between academic knowledge and public debate. The project aims to make a lasting and effective academic contribution to the public good by making visible the role of women in constitutional thought and democratic renewal processes.
About Dr. Banu Turnaoğlu Açan
Dr. Banu Turnaoğlu Açan is a faculty member in political thought at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabancı University. Working in the field of modern and international political thought history, Dr. Turnaoğlu Açan examines Ottoman, Middle Eastern, and European intellectual traditions from a comparative perspective. Her research focuses on constitutional thought, republicanism, and the global circulation of ideas. She is also a Bye-Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University.
