I was working as a secretary in an anthropology museum in southern
California when I applied to the German-Turkish Masters Program in the
summer of 2007. I had just graduated from college and enrolled in the
Middle East Technical University.
I obtained a Bachelor of Science in anthropology with a minor in
international relations from the University of California Riverside and
had spent some time in G?ttingen and Potsdam due to prior language and
culture exchange programs. When I graduated, I was sure I wanted to
pursue a Masters degree but I also knew that an ordinary Masters
program would be too monotonous for me. I had by default a very
interdisciplinary academic background and was looking for something
that would integrate my interest in politics, history and sociology;
for exactly this reason, I enrolled in the GET-MA Program.
My prior experiences in Germany had awakened my curiosity for the
country, particularly the vibrant communities of people from Turkey and
the issues that arise as result of the changing demographics in
Germany. The first time I visited Germany in 2004, I was pleasantly
surprised to find the diversity of cities like Berlin and Hamburg --
they reminded me of cities like Los Angeles. I became curious of how
such changes began and wanted to learn about the various histories of
migration in a European context. The GET-MA Program was the perfect
opportunity for me to do this as I could spend one year in the Turkish
capital of Ankara and conclude the second year of the program in the
city of Berlin.
In Ankara I was enrolled in the Middle East Technical University
(METU); an English teaching institution in central Anatolia. In METU, I
took courses related to modern Turkish history, Turkey's relationship
with the EU, the Middle East and Central Asia along with seminars in
sociology and elective courses in Urban Theory.
Through the elective courses I was able to know other graduate
students and make friends outside of the program. I was very satisfied
with the discussions we would hold in class because the students I
interacted with were very participative and engaged critically with the
material we would review in the courses. The professors were also
accessible, and the professor/student hierarchy that is common to
German universities was not too common there.
Before my arrival, I was sent information on the housing opportunities
in Ankara. One included the dormitories on campus but I preferred to
look for a WG. The university is 20 minutes away from the center of
Ankara and there is frequent transportation from the dorms to downtown,
but the dormitories had a curfew and where separated by sex meaning
that you had dormitories only for women and men. I ended up looking for
a temporary flat online, through the couchsurfing website and then once
the semester began in October, I met other students who then introduced
me to the roommate I would live with the rest of the year. I shared the
flat with a sociology graduate student from Baku.
The year in Turkey served as a foundation for what was to come the
next year in Berlin. In Turkey we established the connections between
the two countries and discussed the types of relationships; whether
politico-economic or cultural, that had existed between the two over
the years from the Ottoman Empire to the current accession
negotiations. In the Turkish part of the program we also improved our
German since none of us in the group where native speakers. Along with
the other courses, we took a German course but taking other language
courses, including Turkish, was of course possible. After the school
term ended we had the possibility of doing an internship in Turkey if
we wished, being a requirement of the program we could either do it
during the summer in Turkey or once we arrived to Berlin. I decided to
do it in Berlin and travelled through-out Turkey
instead.
Once in Berlin, in the Fall of 2008, we took courses related to the
European Union process of integration, modern Germany, and electives as
well. This year was intended for us to complete our internship and to
write the thesis we where expected to complete by the summer 2008.
Throughout the first semester we would also discuss possible topics and
the faculty here was also helpful in giving us orientation regarding
our interests. The second semester included fewer courses and we worked
mostly on our thesis. I completed the three month internship in a
Turkish immigrant women's organization in Kreuzberg and wrote my thesis
on the phenomena of transnational marriage. I conducted interviews with
women who migrated through marriage to join their husbands in Germany
and discussed the relationship of gender and the nation-state in the
context of immigrant women from Turkey. We turned the thesis in in
August 2008 and the program was officially done.
During the second semester of the GET-MA I applied to the Berlin
Graduate School of Social Sciences and now I am part of the
Introductory Year working on a research proposal that will deal with a
comparison between immigrant Mexican communities in the US and those in
Germany. I will focus on the everyday strategies immigrant women employ
to overcome the restrictive policies of each country and then compare
the ways both groups of women deploy networks to do it. In this way, I
hope to add yet another dimension to the German-Turkish one, including
the struggles of people of color in the US for example. These struggles
despite occurring in a different political and economic context are not
too distant from each other, in particular from the problems "minority"
groups in German society confront.
My overall experience in the GET-MA was highly positive and I would
recommend the program to anybody who is willing to broaden their
understanding of the complex relationship between both countries. One
of the strong points of the program is that students are able to spend
one year in both Germany and Turkey, and aside from the academic field
the personal interactions one is able to make are also an aspect worth
mentioning. In the context of current Islamophobic sentiments
throughout Europe as well as Germany, it becomes even more necessary to
engage in a dialogue and exchange. The GET-MA is an opportunity to do
so.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Dr. Claudia MatthesBerlin Graduate School of Social Sciences
Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin
Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
Phone: 030 2093- 6079/-5349
Email: href="mailto:claudia.matthes@staff.hu-berlin.de">claudia.matthes@staff.hu-berlin.de
href="http://www.bgss.hu-berlin.de/">www.bgss.hu-berlin.de