Kerem Halil-Latif OKTEM

Published on 04/12/2024

My office hours are Mondays from 8.45 - 10.45. Please send me a mail to arrange a Zoom Meeting or an office visit.

Published on 04/12/2024

MA thesis supervision

If you are considering writing your MA thesis with me as your supervisor, please consider the following points carefully:

1. A supervision relationship can only be effective if the supervisor has the expertise to supervise your research! Please familiarise yourself with my academic profile and my publications to get a sense of the topics and regions I work on and the approaches I follow.
2. Writing a thesis is a veritable commitment. This is why you need to think about the scale and scope of it beforehand. Before contacting me, clarify for yourself -as good as you can- what you would like to work on. You need to have a clear understanding of what it is that you want to dedicate a lot of time to in the next few months. 
3. At the core of academic research is an analytical concern expressed through a research question, hypotheses, or arguments. The simple description does usually not qualify as academic work. When you start thinking about your thesis, it is not sufficient to be just ‘interested’ in a theme. You have to have a question that is connected to a real-life situation. In short, rather than a general theme of interest, you will need a clear research question that, in addition, has some relevance for the fields of Political Science and International Relations.
4. As you know, there are many methodologies and approaches in the field, with different conventions in terms of data collection, analysis, and presentation. My own approach to research is shaped by a social constructivist framework, an interest in examining relationships of domination, qualitative methods including ethnographic approaches and participant observation, interviews, and critical text/discourse analysis. As I was educated in a strong area studies tradition, I find particularly insightful case study approaches (mostly single case studies and small-n comparative case studies), which are contextualized well. Importantly, I believe that MA students should engage with real-life issues and collect insights not only from desk research, but from fieldwork in institutions, in different regions and countries, and among people. Rather than examining, in an abstract fashion, theories of migration, for instance, I would like you to go out in the field and do interviews with migrants in your neighbourhood and discuss their experiences in the context of the relevant theoretical approaches.
5. With these prior points in mind, please prepare a two-page proposal with the following components (see below) before contacting me.
6. Based on this proposal, I will decide whether I can act as the supervisor of your thesis or whether we need to think about alternatives.
7. In the case we agree on a supervision relationship, there will be a minimum of three supervision meetings in person or online. 

• At the first meeting, we will set the framework for the thesis. 
• The second meeting after you have completed your primary research will be dedicated to supporting you in structuring the analysis. 
• The final meeting will take place after you have submitted your thesis to me and after I have read it in detail. I will not read and comment on individual chapters, but I will read the entire thesis at this point.

Proposal for an MA thesis project

Please find below the most important components of your thesis proposal. You do not have to have the final answers to all of these points/questions, but you should be able to demonstrate that you have thought about them in detail.

1. Research question/Hypothesis/Argument 

What is the big issue that you wish to engage with? 

Is it relevant and, if yes, for whom?
Has the question you are asking already been answered by others?  If so, you need another one!

What kind of outcomes are you expecting?

Make sure that your question is feasible: It should be neither too abstract, nor too limited. You should be able to answer it with the analysis based on your empirical material. 

2. Context 

Discuss the context: Where does your interest in the issue come from? From literature, from public debates, from your own observations? What is the historical context? How has the issue emerged and developed?

3. Literatures/theoretical approaches

Which important works in terms of theory and context are there? You don’t need to have read them, but you should have a sense of the literature that you can consult once you begin with your work.

4. Approaches/Methods

What are your ontological and epistemological positions? What methodology and research design (case studies) do you wish to use? What kind of methods do you intend to use for data collection as well as analysis?

5. Research design and empirical material

What is the empirical basis of your research (case study in a certain community, place, institution or based on other forms of empirical material)? What kind of data will you gather and then analyse (expert interviews, in-depth interviews, newspaper articles, reports)?

6. Timeline

What is the timeline of your research project from now until completion?

This is also important for you to make sure that your project is feasible, i.e. that you have the necessary time and energy resources to complete your research.

Published on 04/12/2024

Please send all your queries to this e-mail: ric.stage@unive.it / Inviate tutte le vostre richieste a questo indirizzo e-mail: ric.stage@unive.it

Dear RIC Master students,

I am in charge of your internship requests. You can contact me to discuss and finalise your project, and once you have completed your internship, you can send me your timesheets and final evaluation for review and signing.

The detailed requirements regarding your internship, including forms, can be accessed here:

Internships in Italy: https://www.unive.it/pag/10356/

Internships abroad: https://www.unive.it/pag/7194/

When you are ready to send me your training project, please integrate all pages that must be signed into one PdF document and add your family name to the title (i.e. Rossini-tirocinio). Please send all your documents in one mail.

Please also note that AIESEC activities can not always be recognised as internships.

I will answer your requests on Tuesdays/Wednesdays. If your query is urgent, try to send it to me by Tuesday lunchtime. 

Please send all your communications only to this e-mail address: ric.stage@unive.it

Thank you!

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Cari studenti e studentesse del Master RIC,

Sono responsabile delle vostre richieste di stage. Potete contattarmi per discutere e finalizzare il vostro progetto e, una volta completato lo stage, potete inviarmi i vostri fogli di presenza e la valutazione finale per la revisione e la firma.

I requisiti dettagliati relativi allo stage, compresi i moduli, sono disponibili qui:

Stage in Italia: https://www.unive.it/pag/10356/

Stage all'estero: https://www.unive.it/pag/7194/

Quando sarete pronti a inviarmi il vostro progetto formativo, vi prego di integrare le tre pagine da firmare in un unico documento PdF e di aggiungere il vostro nome di famiglia al titolo (es. Rossini-tirocinio).

Si noti inoltre che le attività AIESEC non sempre possono essere riconosciute come stage.

Risponderò alle vostre richieste il martedì. Se la vostra richiesta è urgente, cercate di inviarmela entro il martedì alle 13.00.

Si prega di inviare tutte le comunicazioni solo a questo indirizzo e-mail: ric.stage@unive.it

Grazie!

Published on 04/12/2024

Framework for BA thesis supervision

Dear student,

If you are interested in writing your BA thesis with me, please consider the following points:

1. First, please think about the thematic area and about a research question, which you'd like to address in your thesis. The research question stands at the beginning of every research project!
2. To do this, please go back to your course notes on Introduction to International Relations, to the PowerPoint slides of the course, and to your textbook. Please remember which themes you've been interested in at the time.
3. I would particularly like to encourage you to examine whether there are any real-life problems or current cases of conflict that interest you and that are related to issues and questions discussed during the course. Look around in your city or even in your neighbourhood. There are issues, people, and processes linked to international politics everywhere! These are usually the best starting points for an undergraduate thesis.
4. I do not supervise theses that only discuss general concepts or theories. Your thesis should have a concrete case at its centre.
5. Once you have done your initial brainstorming, please write no more than one page (4-6 paragraphs, one paragraph with 4-7 sentences), in which you present to me your potential research theme and research question.
6. When you write your proposal, please make sure to write short, simple, and clear sentences. Avoid any general statements or commonplaces. Be specific about what you want to achieve with your BA thesis.

Based on this, I will decide whether I would be a good fit as your supervisor, or whether other colleagues’ support would be more appropriate.

Once this has been established, we can set up a meeting to discuss your thesis.

If we indeed decide to work together, we will proceed as outlined below.

Best wishes,

Prof. Kerem Oktem

BA Supervision process

1. The student writes and submits a research proposal to the supervisor.
2. Based on the proposal, the supervisor decides whether he can take on the student.
3. The student and supervisor have a Zoom meeting to establish the framework for the thesis.
4. The student writes the introduction and first chapter and submits it to the supervisor.
5. The supervisor comments on these.
6. The student writes the draft thesis and submits it to the supervisor.
7. The supervisor reads the thesis and sends it back to the student with corrections and comments.
8. If required, the student and supervisor meet to discuss the changes and corrections.

Published on 04/12/2024

Dear students,

I am not in charge of mobility requests anymore. Please send all requests regarding your mobility projects to Dr. Francesca ANTONINI (francesca.antonini@unive.it). Thank you!

Cari studenti,

non mi occupo più delle richieste di mobilità. Vi prego di inviare tutte le richieste relative ai vostri progetti di mobilità alla Dott.ssa Francesca ANTONINI (francesca.antonini@unive.it). Grazie!