The Department of Linguistics is proud to announce that a new minor in Turkish Studies was recently approved by the Board of Trustees.
The program aims to introduce students to modern Turkey, and enable students to be able to communicate and read in the authentic language. It requires six hours of advanced level Turkish language courses (for students who don’t already have equivalent credit in the language), plus three hours in Turkish Language and Culture, and nine additional hours in courses relevant to Turkey/Ottoman Empire, chosen from approved offerings in the humanities and social sciences.
Some of the impetus to create the minor came from undergraduate students, who could take relevant courses, but didn’t have an option to get a degree in Turkish. Until now most of these students had to pursue another interdisciplinary minor.
Laying the groundwork for establishing the new minor fell to Dr. Ayse Ozcan, lecturer in linguistics and director of the Turkish program. With the approval of department head James Yoon, Ozcan gained support from other people in the department and the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics and moved ahead with the proposal.
“The approval process went smoothly—with a lot of paperwork but it was worth the effort,” Ozcan said. “This minor is a critical step to grow the Turkish program and attract more students, along with the new gen-ed course, TURK 270 (Language and Culture in Turkey),” she added.
Turkish studies is popular at many major American universities and across the globe, as 150 million people speak Turkish, from the southeast of Eastern Europe to the borders of China. Students who complete the minor in Turkish Studies will be qualified to seek jobs in a variety of settings, including academia, business, research institutions, national security jobs, and diplomatic missions.
To learn more about Turkish Studies at Illinois: https://linguistics.illinois.edu/languages/turkish-program