CURRENT
Prof. Dr. Yalçın BAY
In 1997, he completed his undergraduate education at Gazi University, Gazi Faculty of Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction; in 2002, he completed his master's degree at Afyon Kocatepe University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Classroom Teaching; in 2008, he completed his doctorate at Gazi University, Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Classroom Teaching; and in 2016, he completed his post-doctorate education at Michigan State University, Department of Teacher Education. Between 1997 and 2011, he worked as a Classroom Teacher, Psychological Counselor, Program Development Specialist and Project Specialist in the central and provincial organizations of the Ministry of National Education. Between 2013-2018, he worked as a faculty member at Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Education. His academic studies; He has studied in the fields of Primary Literacy and Turkish Teaching, Educational Psychology, Teacher Training, the Turkish Education System, and the Teaching Play Model. From 2014-2016, he served as the Coordinator of the "Turkish World Children's Games and Toys Project". Within the scope of this project, he compiled cultural games and toys as a result of a wide field research conducted in 28 countries/regions between 2014-2016. Since 2018, he has worked faculty member at Anadolu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Basic Education, Department of Classroom Teaching. As of July 2023, he is doing his second Post-Doctorate at Michigan State University, Department of Teacher Education with the research on "Comparison of Handwriting and Digital Writing Skills of Primary School Students in Turkey and the USA".
Comparatively little is known about the digital writing skills of primary students in Turkey. Using a comparative case study approach, this study will examine how the digital writing skills of primary school students in Turkey compare to those in the US. Through observations, documents, interviews, and screen captures, data from the study will provide a detailed description of the digital writing skills in Turkey and the US for international plans to design future curriculum, pedagogy, and policy.
In 2003, she completed her undergraduate education at Gazi University, Faculty of Education, Department of Classroom Teaching. In 2008, she completed her master's degree and in 2011, she completed her doctorate education at Gazi University Institute of Educational Sciences, Department of Preschool Education. Between 2006-2011, she worked as a research assistant at Gazi University Gazi Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education, Department of Preschool Education. Between 2011-2013, she did her Post-Doctorate at Michigan State University Teacher Education Department with the research topic "Teachers' Question Asking Skills". Between 2014 and 2015, he was the coordinator of the project Children's Games and Toys in the Turkic World and compiled cultural games and toys as a result of a wide field research carried out in 28 countries/regions. Between 2015-2017, he worked as the Kindergarten Coordinator of Eskişehir Osmangazi University and developed the Cultural Education Model in Preschool as a result of the practices carried out for 3 years. In 2023, she received a TÜBİTAK scholarship with the research topic "The Use of Digital Technology in Early Childhood" and went to Michigan State University Teacher Education Department for the second time for Post-Doctorate. Since 2013, she has been working as a faculty member at Eskişehir Osmangazi University. She has studied in the fields of preschool literacy preparation studies, primary school preparation, school family cooperation, family participation, teachers' ability to ask questions, cultural children's games, classroom management, and digital technology use in preschool.
Very little is known about how early childhood educators perceive and use digital technologies in their work. Using a phenomenological approach, this study will examine how early childhood teachers use digital technologies when planning, teaching, assessing, communicating, and learning. Through observations, interviews, and surveys, data from the study will provide a detailed description of the use of digital technologies in early childhood education for the design of future curriculum, pedagogy, and policy.
Past Visiting Faculty
Visiting Faculty Spring 2023
Dilorom Ismoilova holds Master’s Degree in Linguistics from Fergana State University in Uzbekistan and is now an English teacher and researcher in the Department of English of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at her alma mater. Dilorom Ismoilova teaches grammar, practical English phonetics, and discourse analysis. As a FEP fellow at Michigan State University, she is enhancing her pedagogical competence in terms of curriculum development by considering learners’ needs, learning objectives, tools, materials, and assessments. Furthermore, she is learning effective teaching methods and approaches to teach English as a second language. She notes that she feels a warm attitude towards diversity and equity at MSU. Her research focuses on analyzing similarities and differences in criminal semantics between English and Uzbek languages.
Visiting Faculty Spring 2023
Gulbahor Nazarova graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Philology of Bukhara State University (Uzbekistan) in 1999. From 1999 to 2008, she worked as an EFL teacher at the Regional Academic Lyceum #1 in Bukhara. Since 2008, she has been working as a senior lecturer at the Department of English Literature and Stylistics at Bukhara State University. In 2022, she received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with the PhD dissertation entitled “The System, Genesis, Literary Functions of Mythological Images in English and Uzbek Literature.” She obtained her associate professorship in December, 2022. As a part of FEP-supported visit to MSU, she is observing courses, attending academic conferences, and working closely with her faculty mentor, Dr. Dustin de Felice, Director of English Language Center. She is also working on her post-doctoral research on the theme of gender difference and its impact on speech and communication.
Visiting Faculty Spring 2023
Orzigul Ganieva received her Master's Degree in Literary Criticism from Bukhara State University, Uzbekistan, and then worked as an Associate Professor in the English Literary Studies Department of the same University. From 2013 to 2022, she took several teacher training courses, two of which from the Metropolitan University in London and the London Imperial College, wrote more than 25 research articles, published the course book "American Literature (In Uzbekistan Context)," and co-authored the course book "Country Study (Uzbekistan)." In 2021-2022, she became a grantee for the American Literature Club at Bukhara State University, a program sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent. In 2022, she received her doctoral degree with a Ph.D. thesis entitled "The Description of the Relationship between a Person and Society in John Steinbeck's and Adil Yakubov's Works." As a FEP fellow at Michigan State University, she is currently working on postdoctoral research on "The Poetics of XX century American Realistic Fiction (Based on the works of Jesse Stuart, John Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe)."
Visiting Faculty Spring 2023
Ilhomjon Aslanov graduated from the National University of Uzbekistan in 2001 with a BA in Geography. He held a senior position at the Ministry of Higher and Special Secondary Education from 2001 to 2007. In 2009, he received further training in Geo-informatics at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing and went on to earn his Ph.D. in Geography with a dissertation titled "Dust Storms, dust transfer and Depositions in the Southern Aral Sea Region". He was awarded the rank of Associate Professor in December 2019. Currently, he is visiting Michigan State University through the FEP program, where he is attending courses, participating in academic conferences, and collaborating with his faculty mentor, Dr. Jiaguo Qi, who is a Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences. He is working on several projects on environmental issues in Central Asia.
Laura Sadykova
Visiting Faculty Fall 2017
Laura Sadykova graduated from the Timiryazev Moscow Agricultural Academy. Then she successfully graduated from the Kazakh Research Institute of Livestock Research, defending her thesis for the degree of Candidate of Agricultural Sciences. For several years she worked as a scientific, then senior researcher in the scientific research institute of the food industry. Then she moved to administrative work related to the management of science and education. Worked at different positions in the Ministry of Education and Science, in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan. After working in the ministries, she graduated from the Kazakhstan Institute of Actual Education with a degree in Finance and continued her work at the Kazakh Agrotechnical University in Astana. She published independently and co-authored more than twenty scientific articles on agricultural topics. Currently she performs research work together with colleagues on the theme: "Scientific and methodological foundations for the formation of an innovative ecosystem of research universities." The authors of the project have prepared and published methodological recommendations on the construction of an innovative ecosystem in research universities of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the basis of studying the current state of Kazakhstan universities and the experience of international research universities. At Michigan State University, she continues to study international experience in the formation of research universities, as well as issues of economic diversification and the agricultural sector of Kazakhstan.
Secil Pacaci Elitok
Visiting Faculty
(Sadly, Dr. Elitok passed away April 2022. Her obituary is here.
Secil Pacaci Elitok received her PhD in Economics from the University of Utah (USA) in 2008. From 2009 to 2011 she worked for the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) as a Marie Curie Fellow as part of the EU Marie Curie Research Training Network TOM (Transnationality of Migrants). From 2012 to 2013 she worked as a Mercator–IPC Fellow at Istanbul Policy Center (IPC) at Sabancý University, working on a research project entitled “The Role of Migration in EU/German-Turkish Relations”. During this time she taught a module on the “Politics of Migration” at Sabancý University and worked as a consultant to the World Bank on a number of international mobility research projects. Before her appointment as visiting adjunct professor at CERES (Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies) at Michigan State University, Dr. Elitok worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the MiReKoç (Migration Research Center at Koç University). She obtained her associate professorship in March 2016. Her main research interest is international migration with a specific focus on migration to and from Turkey, as well as high-skilled migration, return migration and remittances.
Akarturk Karahan
Visiting Faculty Winter 2017
Akartürk Karahan (Ph.D., Ankara University, 2009) is a research scholar at the Center for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (CERES) of Michigan State University in 2016-2017. Akartürk Karahan is an Associate Professor of the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. A scholar of the Old Turkic Language with a focus on Old Uygur, Qarakhanid, Old Kipchak lexicology and Old Turkic dialectology. Her first book is XIth Century’s Turkic Dialectology According to the Divanu Lugati’t-Turk[Divanu Lugati’t-Türk’e Göre XI. Yüzyıl Türk Lehçe Bilgisi, (Ankara, 2013)]. In this book, the Old Turkic dialects of the Mahmud Kashgari's work, Divanu Lugati’t-Turk, were dealt with in a historical-modern comparative linguistic method. Her second book is Conjunctions in Old Uygur [Eski Uygurcada Bağlaçlar, (Ankara, 2014)]. Since that time, her research and publications have focused on historical Turkic language’s lexicogology issues. She has been awarded research scholarship from the TUBITAK. Professor Karahan's current research is thelanguage contacts of the X- XII. centuries Turkic languages. She has been preparing two books on an unknown Ottoman poet and writer Sherafeddin Bey (1889-1922)’s letters and poems with Professor Timur Kocaoğlu.
Global Challenges University Alliance
Institutional Partnerships
About CERES
On Russia's war in Ukraine: MSU events and resources
