Baran Altın
Baran received his BA in Western Languages and Literatures from Boğaziçi University and his MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. His MA thesis, titled “Two Senses of the Amount of Pain”, focused on the interpersonal aggregation of pain. His primary research interests include the philosophy of well-being, philosophy of mind, and Buddhist philosophy.
Email: baran.altin@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z49
Mert Ateşsal
Mert received his BA in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University along with minors in Philosophy, Art Theory and Criticism, and Gender Studies. He then completed his MA in Philosophy at Bilkent University with a thesis entitled “Do We Need Philosophical Ethics? The Case Against a Unified Ethical Methodology.”
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The thesis examined whether theories in metaethics have first-order normative ethical implications and argued that they do not, at least not to an extent that would require normative ethicists to also do metaethics.
His primary areas of interest are metaethics, normative ethics, political philosophy, and aesthetics. His current research lies at the intersection of political philosophy and aesthetics, where he investigates how theories of distributive justice can be extended to the often-neglected domain of cultural property. He presented the first paper of this project, “Why You Cannot Own the Parthenon: Cultural Treasures and the Limits of Property,” at the Joint Session of the Mind and Aristotelian Societies at the University of Reading (2026) and the annual conference of the British Society of Aesthetics at the University of Oxford (2026). The paper also received an honorary mention for the Early-Career Scholar Prize of the European Society of Analytic Philosophy in the category of aesthetics (2026).
He also has an interest in the philosophy of science, particularly accounts that seek to develop methods for making the production, distribution, and assimilation of knowledge more just. On this theme, Mert presented his paper “Reconsidering the Grounds for Public Trust in Science” at the Joint Session of the Mind and Aristotelian Societies at the University of Glasgow in July 2025.
Mert is currently teaching Social and Political Philosophy.
Outside philosophy, he is a dedicated tennis player and occasional golfer, and spends an unreasonable amount of time planning trips.
Read his Story Behind the Picture on Jacques-Louis David’s Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons.
Email: mert.atessal@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z41
Berk Celayir
Berk received his BA and MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. He is one of the founders of “Prokopton: Bilkent Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy“and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of “Öncül Analitik Felsefe Dergisi“. He is also the author of “Bilimin Sınırları: Bilim Neyi, Ne Kadar, Nasıl Bilebilir?“and “Analitik Felsefe Yazıları: Temel Sorunlar Üzerine Bazı Tartışmalar“. His primary areas of interest are the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of religion
Email: berk.celayir@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z41
Zeynep Çelik
Zeynep received her BA in English Literature (2020), and MA in Philosophy (2022) from Bilkent University. Her research explores the connection between Social Ontology, Artificial Agency, and Aesthetics by seeking answers to questions concerning collective authorship. Additional areas of interest include Philosophy of AI and Philosophy of Fiction.
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She is the recipient of the British Society of Aesthetics (BSA) New Horizons Award (2025) for her paper “Collective Authorship in Theatrical Works” at the BSA Annual Conference at Oxford University. The paper was also presented at the Social Ontology & Collective Intentionality international conference (University of Vienna, 2022), Society for Women in Philosophy in Turkey conference (2022), a Turkish version at POEDAT 3. Analitik Felsefe Çalıştayı (2024), and more recently at The Aristotelian Society (2026).
Having co-organized the first Social Ontology Faces the Future workshop in 2024, she continued this role in co-organizing the second Social Ontology Faces the Future II workshop, funded by ISOS and SAP (2025). Her most recent project entitled “From Names on the Page to Praise in Practice: Aesthetic Credit and Collective Authorship” was presented at the 2026 ISOS Conference, immediately following her admission to the Summer School held by Brian Epstein.
Email: imzeynep@gmail.com
Room: H-Z49
Sena Çiftci
Sena received her BA and MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. Her MA thesis was entitled “Mary Wollstonecraft’s Revolution in Manners and the Kickback of Constructed Femininity.” She is currently pursuing her PhD in Philosophy at Bilkent. Her primary research interests focus on feminist studies, critical theory, and phenomenology. She is particularly interested in working on Simone de Beauvoir, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Edmund Husserl. Her current PhD research focuses on the phenomenology of emotion, the master-slave dialectic, and the methodology of critical phenomenology. She presented her paper entitled “Is Critical Phenomenology a Workable Project?” at the Society for Women in Philosophy in Ireland conference in 2025.
Email: sena.ciftci@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z41
Bengü Demirtaş
Bengü Demirtaş received her BA in Western Languages and Literatures, with a double major in Philosophy, from Boğaziçi University, and her MA in Western Literature from KU Leuven. Her primary research interests are social and political philosophy and the history of feminist philosophy.
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In July 2024, she presented as part of the SWIP panel at the Joint Session of the Mind and Aristotelian Societies. In October 2024, she participated in the inaugural Princeton–Bilkent Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Science. In April 2025, she presented a paper entitled “With Pleasure: A Feminist Contractarian Supplement to the Nonideal Theory of Consent” at the American Philosophical Association’s Pacific Division Annual Meeting. The paper is forthcoming in Australian Feminist Studies.
She is the recipient of the 2026 Predoctoral Scholarly Activity Award from the British Society for the History of Philosophy (BSHP). She is also a section editor for the Elizabeth Montagu Correspondence Online (EMCO) project. Her forthcoming publications include a chapter in Turkish on the social ontology of love, entitled “Sevginin Feminist Sosyal Ontolojisi: Çoğul Özneler ve Karşılıklı Bağımlılık,” in the Social Ontology volume of the Çağdaş Bilim Felsefesi Serisi.
She is currently teaching Social and Political Philosophy at Bilkent University.
Web: bengudemirtas.com
Email: bengu.demirtas@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z41
Ziad Eldanaf
Ziad holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut, where he also completed a minor in Arabic Language and Literature. His research specialization is in metaphysics, with a particular focus on hylomorphism and its applications in both natural and social ontology.
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He also maintains strong interests in Greek philosophy and the philosophy of science. In October 2024, he joined the inaugural Princeton-Bilkent Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Science, followed in spring 2025 by the Workshop on the History of Modal Metaphysics at Bilkent. In July 2025, he presented “A Hylomorphic Solution to the Problem of the Many” at the International Aristotelian Conference in Lisbon, followed in August by “Hylomorphic Corporate Agents” at Social Ontology 2025 in Dublin. In 2026, he presented “A Hylomorphic Critique to Pure Potentialism” at Issues on the (Im)Possible II, “When Parthood Breaks: Hylomorphism and the Limits of Classical Mereology” at the Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association at the University of Reading, and “Why Organizations Have Non-Human Parts” at Social Ontology 2026 at Jagiellonian University. He is currently undertaking a PhD research visit at the University of Vienna, where he works with Benjamin Schnieder and the Phlox research group.
Ziad has over eight years of teaching experience, having served as instructor of record for Arabic as a Foreign Language at AUB (2017–2020) and as a Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Logic and Social and Legal Philosophy at Bilkent University.
Email: ziad.eldanaf@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
Çağın Tan Eroğlu
Tan received his MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. He holds a Law degree from Bilkent University with a minor in Turkish Literature. He is primarily interested in social epistemology, game/decision theory, and collective action problems, asking questions about the persistence of social norms given that a Pareto-better equilibrium is sitting right there.
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He has presented at UNC Charlotte’s 7th Ethics and Applied Philosophy Graduate Conference, ECPR’s 2025 Joint Sessions of Workshops, the 15th Braga Summer School (CEPS, Minho), and METU’s 5th International Applied Ethics Conference. He has two forthcoming book chapters: one, in Turkish, on the role of consent in Gilbert’s theory of joint commitment, and another on the moral reconciliation of the free-riding problem. Prior to joining the department, he taught Turkish 101/2 at Bilkent as a part-time instructor.
Tan currently serves as a teaching assistant for Philosophy of Social Inquiry.
He has been selected for a Fulbright Grant to complete his doctoral studies in the United States.
Web: tan-eroglu.com
Email: tan.eroglu@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z49a
Sina Ersan
Sina received their BA in Philosophy with a certificate in Film Studies at Boğaziçi University in 2022. They obtained their MA in Philosophy at Università della Svizzera Italiana with a thesis titled “An Extension to Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity Theory: Gender-queer Inclusiveness & Sexual Orientation Performativity” in 2024. Their main interests are mereology, location, philosophy of physics, and queer studies. They have presented their work titled “Against Unrestricted Supersubstantivalism” at the SIFA-AMAMI Midterm Conference 2026, Italy; and the SBFA IX Conference, Brazil. They also have a huge interest in literature and football. Sina served as teaching assistant for Introduction to Logic for three semesters.
Email: sina.ersan@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
Ahmet Gönüllü
Ahmet completed his MA in Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, following a BA in Philosophy at Bilkent University, where he also minored in Political Science. His primary research interests include moral responsibility, global justice, the state, social ontology, and criminal justice.
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Ahmet’s recent and forthcoming work has been presented at a range of international conferences and research venues. In July 2026, he presented “The Global Collective Agent” at the
Postgraduate Session
of the 100th Joint Session at the University of Reading, and “How Should I Feel About What We Did Together?” at the
British Society for Ethical Theory
Annual Conference at the University of Leeds. In 2025, among other presentations, he presented “Culpability for Group Wrongdoing” at the First Conference of the European Moral Responsibility Consortium in Leuven and “Moral Responsibility for Global Injustice: A Pluralistic Approach” at the ASPP Conference in Glasgow.
Ahmet was awarded a TÜBİTAK grant to conduct research at the University of Vienna from July 2025 to March 2026. Prior to this, he held an Ernst Mach Grant for research at the same institution from October 2024 to June 2025. He was also selected as a Global Fellow by Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP).
His article, “Biperspectival Regret: The Appropriate Emotion for Faultless Group Harm,” has recently been accepted for publication in the journal
Philosophy.
Email: ahmet.gonullu@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
Aybars Önder
Aybars received his BA in Philosophy from Princeton University. His primary research interests lie in ethics and political theory, motivated by the questions of how one ought to live and how societies should be organized. Within this area, he is interested in global justice. He also has a strong interest in metaphilosophy and philosophical methodology, including questions about the role of intuition and empirical methods in philosophy, and the possibility of integrating or synthesizing analytic methods with 19th- and 20th-century continental European philosophy. His other interests include German idealism, analytic German idealism, constructivism, and pragmatism.
Email: aybars.onder@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: HZ-49
İnci Öztürk
İnci received her BA in Philosophy from Bogazici University, and her MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University with a thesis titled “Prudential Concern and Relativism about Personal Identity”. Her research interests are metaphysics, phenomenology, the philosophy of death, and the ontology of art objects. She is particularly drawn to forms of art that challenge traditional assumptions about material constitution, location, and persistence, such as street art and graffiti.
Email: inci.ozturk@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
Berkay Ozar
Berkay received his BS in Psychology from Middle East Technical University and MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University, with a thesis entitled “Reference, Necessity, and Social Terms“. His current research interests lie at the intersection of social ontology, conceptual engineering, and metaphysics.
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He is also interested in the philosophy of cognitive science and sociology of knowledge. Berkay has presented his work at consecutive conferences of the International Social Ontology Society (ISOS), including “A Heterogeneous Approach to Social Ontology” at Duke University in July 2024, “Ameliorative Projects and the Metalinguistic Negotiations of Social Terms” at Trinity College Dublin in August 2025, and “Contingency, Exportation, and Social Construction” at Jagiellonian University in July 2026.
Berkay is currently a teaching assistant for Introduction to Logic..
Email: berkay.ozar@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z41
Sarp Özdemir
Sarp graduated from Koç University with a double major in Psychology and Philosophy, as well as a certificate in Cognitive and Brain Sciences. He then completed his MA in Philosophy at Bilkent University, with a thesis titled “A Defense of Goodmanian Irrealism About Metaphysics.” He focuses on issues in the philosophy of action, mind, language, and metaphysics, motivated by an overarching interest in how we relate to the world around us. His current work examines whether our future-directed self-concern is grounded in personal identity, psychological continuity, or some other relation. Sarp also currently serves as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Logic.
Email: sarp.ozdemir@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
M. Maşuk Şimşek
Maşuk received his BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Bogazici University and MA in Philosophy from Central European University. He is primarily interested in metaphysics of infinity and related topics in philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of religion. In 2022 he presented his paper on “Determination Relations and Metaphysical Explanations” at the Varieties of Non-Wellfoundedness Workshop in Ligerz, Switzerland. That paper is now published in the journal Dialectica. In October 2024 he participated in the inaugural Princeton-Bilkent Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Science.
Web: masuksimsek.com
Email: masuk.simsek@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: HZ-49
Gülden Alaz Meriç
Alaz received both her BA and MA in Philosophy from Middle East Technical University. Her primary research interests lie in developing philosophical approaches to contemporary social challenges, particularly stereotypes, implicit bias, and discrimination. Additionally, she is interested in logic and has served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Logic since Fall 2022, with a focus on argumentation, and critical thinking. In October 2023 and September 2024, Alaz presented her papers: “On the Nature of Stereotypes” and “Unveiling Sexist Fallacies: Integrating Philosophical Analysis with Practical AI Applications” at the CEPDISC conferences on discrimination in Aarhus, Denmark. She is also passionate about making philosophy accessible to everyone, viewing it as an integral part of everyday life. To share this vision, she writes about philosophical themes found in films, music, and daily experiences on www.artialan.com.
Email: alaz.meric@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: G-B36
Evrensel Sebep
Evrensel received his BA in Politics and History from Newcastle University. He then completed his MA in Philosophy at the University of Bristol. His interest areas include collective intentionality, democratic theory, social and political philosophy. In June 2022 he presented his paper “What (kind of group) constitutes a political movement?” at the Ontology of Politics workshop at the University of Groningen. In June 2023 he presented his paper on “The Disenfranchisement of the Elderly” at the Bucharest Conference in Analytical Political Theory. His article entitled ‘Warfare and Authority-Based Accountability‘ was recently published in Journal of Social Ontology.
In Fall 2026 Evrensel will start a three year post-doc at the University of Bern.
Web: philpeople.org/profiles/evrensel-sebep
Email: evrenselsebep@gmail.com
Room:
Yavuz Selim Şen
Yavuz received their BA in Western Languages and Literatures with a double major in Philosophy at Boğaziçi University and a MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. Their primary research interests are in ethics and social and political philosophy. They are especially interested in concepts of structural injustice, political normativity, membership, and recognition. In August 2023 he presented his co-authored paper entitled “Social Ontology Meets Political Realism” at the annual Social Ontology conference at Stockholm University. In August 2025 he presented his paper “Political Moralism and Ressentiment” at the From Disappointment to Bitterness and Back Workshop at the University of Vienna.
Email: selim.sen@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: T-260
Ekin Su Yiğit
Ekin Su received her BA in Political Science and Public Administration and her MA in Political Science from Bilkent University. Her MA thesis examined how political discourse names the state of exception, reading the European Commission’s statements on Gaza and Ukraine through the work of Schmitt and Agamben. Her research interests are political philosophy, ethics, critical theory, and critical phenomenology. She is primarily interested in the ethical consequences of legitimation from the perspective of critical phenomenology, particularly in how dehumanization changes the way others appear to us, and in turn who is perceived as an ethical subject and how violence against them is judged.
Email: su.yigit@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z49
Uğur Yıldırım
Uğur received his BA degree from Boğaziçi University and his MA degree from Koç University, both in philosophy. His primary research area is ancient philosophy. In ancient philosophy, he mostly works on Plato and Aristotle, particularly on the concepts of moral luck and flourishing (eudaimonia) and their theories of moral development and education.
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His MA thesis, titled “Luck & Education in Plato’s Middle Dialogues,” focuses on the role that luck plays in Plato’s educational plan for philosophers. He is also interested in ethics and social and political philosophy, especially where they draw on insights from antiquity: contemporary virtue ethics and the capabilities approach..
Email: uguryildirim@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: H-Z49a
Eylül Yücel
Eylül received her BA and MA in Philosophy from Bilkent University. Her primary interests are History of Philosophy, Aesthetics and Animal Ethics. In September 2022 she presented at a workshop organized by the European Society for Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen. In October 2023 she presented at a seminar organized by Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy at McGill University. Her article entitled “The Place of Animals in Wollstonecraft’s Early Educational Writings” is now published in Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review.
Web: https://eylulyucelphilosophy.weebly.com/
Email: eylul.yucel@bilkent.edu.tr
Room: