ISASOR VII – 2025 Held in Burdur
Organized with the support of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, the VII. International Symposium on Strategic and Social Research (ISASOR VII – 2025) was held in Burdur on November 27–28, 2025. The symposium, with the main theme “History, Science, and Society in a Changing, Transforming World”, provided an opportunity for the discussion of current academic studies conducted in different fields of social sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The opening of the symposium was conducted with speeches by the Symposium Organizing Committee Chairs Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Karaman and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Dericioğulları Ergun. Following the opening speeches, Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Oğuz Gürsoy also delivered a speech, emphasizing the university's support for scientific activities and the role of social sciences in understanding societal issues.
As part of the opening program, a special session was organized on the occasion of November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. In this special session chaired by Prof. Dr. Cem Ergun, Prof. Dr. Songül Sallan Gül addressed the policies for combating violence against women from historical and social dimensions with her presentation titled “The Past and Present of Women's Shelters in Combating Violence Against Women in Turkey”. The session, with discussions conducted in the context of gender inequalities and social policy, constituted one of the important topics of the symposium.
During the two-day symposium program, numerous academics from fields such as sociology, history, political science, communication, cultural studies, and educational sciences presented their papers. Current social issues such as gender, migration and refugees, identity, generations, poverty, labor, media and digital transformation, space, and social inequalities were addressed in theoretical and empirical dimensions; the symposium created a rich and multi-layered scientific discussion platform.
The full texts of the papers accepted and presented at ISASOR VII – 2025 are planned to be published in a symposium proceedings book with an ISBN after a double-blind peer review process. Papers were presented in Turkish and English; a wide academic participation was ensured with face-to-face and online sessions.
One of the notable aspects of the symposium was that no participation fee was charged from the participants, and instead, a donation of saplings was made to the “We Plant 20,000 Trees for Our 20th Year” campaign initiated as part of the 20th anniversary of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University. With this practice, the symposium provided a concrete contribution to the university's sustainability vision and green campus goals, in addition to academic sharing. It was stated that all donations would be used for tree planting activities to be carried out in the campus areas in memory of the university's 20th anniversary.
ISASOR VII – 2025, with its strong academic content, sensitivity to social issues, and sustainability-focused approach, was completed as an important international academic event that strengthens scientific production and university–society interaction in the field of sociology and social sciences.