Graduate Student Manual

 

•       Chair: Didar Akar (akar@boun.edu.tr) 

•       Vice-Chair: Balkız Öztürk Başaran (balkiz.ozturk@boun.edu.tr)

•       PhD Advisor: Elena.Guerzoni (guerzoni@boun.edu.tr)

•       MA Advisor: Balkız Öztürk (balkiz.ozturk@boun.edu.tr)

 

We would like to welcome you to our graduate programs in Linguistics.

Below we provide you with information on the structure and requirements of the MA and PhD programs, available sources for financial support to attend conferences and other useful matters.

Both the MA and PhD programs are full-time programs. Students who hold (or plan to hold) a full time job will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to commit themselves to a full time load in our programs. We would therefore like to make it clear that if you are working full time, you will not be allowed to take the full load in one term, and that the completion of your program will take longer.

 

MA Program

The regular load is 3 courses per term. This means that for each MA course, you need to allocate, in addition to the 4 hours of class time, an average of 7-8 hours of preparation and/or assignment time.

There is a one credit obligatory reading course (LING 571 or LING 572), which you should ideally take one term before, or during the term you start preparing to work on your thesis. The purpose of this course is to get you to choose the readings relevant to yout thesis.

There is also a non-credit Graduate Seminar course (LING 579) that all MA students have to take. The requirements of this course is to attend a total of 11 academic talks in workshops/conferences or individual lectures. 

Choosing a supervisor in the MA program: MA students are expected to choose a supervisor after they have completed their first two terms. Co-supervision should be considered as an option only when the chosen area of research covers two fields for which the expertise of two supervisors is essential, and not when two supervisors are specialists in similar fields.

 

PhD Program

The regular load is 2 courses per term. In addition to 4 hours of class time, you are expected to devote an average of 12-13 hours of preparation/assignment time per week for each course.

Choosing a supervisor in the PhD program: PhD students are expected to choose a supervisor by the beginning of the third  term. Co-supervision should be considered as an option only when the chosen area of research covers two fields for which the expertise of two supervisors is essential, and not when two supervisors are specialists in similar fields.

 

Academic activities students are expected to attend

•       Students are expected to attend talks by guest lecturers, BLC-talks (Boğaziçi Linguistics Circle) and any other academic activity organized by our programs as such activities are an integral part of your graduate study at Boğaziçi University.

•       BLC-talks: Every student is required to give at least one talk on his/her thesis topic. Students are also urged to give talks on topics that they are working on, for example a conference presentation which may have developed from a term paper. The purpose of these meetings is to get the students to organize their work, present it and receive feedback from their peers and instructors. 

 

Research

Research training is an integral part of your education and we therefore would like to make some suggestions regarding your development as a linguist.

  • We first suggest that you become a member of ‘linguistlist’, the most widely used platform by linguists and students of linguistics. There you will find announcements and calls for conferences (including student conferences), information on new publications, discussions of various topics, and announcements for summer/winter schools and job openings: linglite@listserv.linguistlist.org
  • We also suggest that you become a member of the mailing list ‘alc = Ankara Linguistics Circle’, associated with Dilbilim Derneği. 

Through these two lists you will be able to follow linguistics related events. There are many other more specialized lists, and you can find some of these through the postings on linguistlist, others through searches on the web.

Among the many conferences you could participate in, we would like to highlight the following. These are general platforms that accept papers on a wide variety of topics, and you should see them as conferences to which you can send abstracts and get feedback from linguists from many different places and orientations:

And specifically for Turkish:

  • Ulusal Dilbilim Kurultayı This meets annually in a different Turkish university. Accepts papers on all topics in Linguistics (not only on Turkish). There is no permanent web page. (The webpage for this year's meeting is: http://www.udk30.org/)
  • ICTL (International Conference on Turkish Linguistics): Meets biennially, once in a Turkish University, once in a university abroad. There is no permanent web page. (The webpage for this year's meeting is: http://www.ictl2016.info)
  • WAFL (Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics): Meets yearly at different universities.
  • Dilbilim Araştırmaları Dergisi is the only journal dedicated to linguistics in Turkey.

We wish you many good conferences and publications!

 

Applying for funding

Scholarships are given by TÜBİTAK, and funding for conferences, summer schools are provided by FEF, SBE, BUVAK, DUYGAR and TÜBİTAK. See the appendix for details

 

Notes on applying for funding

This is a guideline and the figures are based on the rates of 2015.  Please check current figures and application conditions before applying. 

As we know that most students have to support themselves financially during their studies, we would like to encourage those who are planning to follow the full-time program and financially support themselves to apply to the TÜBİTAK postgraduate bursary 2211 (Lisansüstü Eğitim Programları). Note that this bursary is for Turkish nationals only.

Graduate students can also apply for funding for:

1. Presentations at conferences and workshops

2. Summer Schools

Whether you apply for funding for a conference or summer school, you will be reimbursed after you have completed your visit, and only if you have the correct documentation: photocopy of your passport, e-ticket or receipt, documentation of attendance at conference/summer school (usually the registration receipt is sufficient), hotel receipt etc. You must keep the boarding pass of your plane trips and present it with the other documents. You will not be paid in advance.

Please call the relevant offices to confirm what they require (including what name the receipt should be written to.

 

Important:

Applications to SBE funding are done online. However, before each visit, you need to ask for a permission of leave. For this, you have to write a request form with the dates, name of the conference, title of your paper/poster, which fund giving body you are applying to, and what you are applying for (which can be any or all of yol, konaklama, kayıt üceti, gündelik) and give it to the head of department).

This has to be approved at the departmental meeting (meets on Thursdays but not all Thursdays), after which it goes to Fakülte Kurulu (which meets on Tuesdays). So allow plenty of time. Ideally you should apply to the department by email to the chair (by providing the title of the paper, venue, conference details), at the time when you send an abstract. Do NOT wait for your abstract to be accepted before you apply to the department, this may sometimes be too late for your application to be processed. Also, don’t leave your visa applications to the last minute.

 

Where to ask for funding (All the figures below are for 2014):

1. Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi (FEF)

Documents:

  • Application form (Dilekçe) approved by department
  • Abstract of your accepted talk/poster
  • Letter of invitation from the conference organizers.

You can apply only once in a calendar year

Turkey 300 TL
Abroad 850 TL

 

2. Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü: SBE

Financial and Conference Support > Institute Support for Research-related Travel and Conference Expenses

Documents:

  • E-petition

You can apply only once in a calendar year

Depending on priorities, at most 6 students from each department are funded.

Turkey (national, i.e. all-Turkey conferences) 600 TL
Turkey (international conferences) 900 TL
Europe 1200 TL
USA / Southeast Asia / Australia 1600 TL

 

3. BÜVAK / Rektörlük

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Vakfı Akademik Faaliyetler Destek Fonu Yönetmeliği 2016

Only PhD students and TAs who have passed their prelims (Yeterlilik Sınavı) can apply.

Turkey 750 TL
Abroad 1500 TL

> The maximum amount can be spread between different conferences within the same calendar year.

 

4. Dil Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi (DUYGAR)

Students who have applied to and exhausted the options above and in cases where they cannot meet all their expenses can apply to Dil UYGAR Merkezi.

If accepted, DUYGAR may grant a maximum of  $1000. You can get the application form the chair of DUYGAR.

These applications do not go through the department and FEF.

Documents:

  • Application form (Dilekçe)
  • Abstract of your accepted talk/poster
  • Letter of invitation from the conference organizers.

You can apply only once in a calendar year

Addendum to the application: Statement of all the bodies applied to for funding before and how much was granted for which conference.

 

Important:

You will not be paid for the air fare unless you have a receipt or a document showing that you an e-ticket. An e-ticket which has been sent from a travel agency is not sufficient. Therefore, even if it turns out to be more economic, you will be taking a risk if you get your ticket from an agency which does not supply such documentation.

And don’t forget to keep your boarding passes.

 

5. TÜBİTAK (financial support for conferences and summer schools):

Yurt Dışı Bilimsel Etkinliklere Katılma Desteği Programı

 

 

 


Son Güncelleme: 12:30:57 - 14.01.2019