Welcome to the Bilkent Faculty of Humanities and Letters

Our primary goal in the Faculty of Humanities and Letters is to introduce students to the many and diverse worlds of meaning, thought, experience, and imagination that men and women have produced and lived throughout the course of human history. We do this by closely reading and examining texts and cultural artifacts created in different historical contexts. We encourage students to engage themselves actively and critically with these texts and cultural artifacts, in the process expanding their intellectual and imaginative horizons. From the objects excavated from ancient civilizations, through

the philosophical and literary texts of Classical Antiquity, to treatises on politics and philosophy written by Early Modern thinkers such as Descartes and Châtelet, to contemporary fiction, poetry, and visual culture, we work with our students and colleagues to understand and interpret the meanings embedded in these cultural productions. Comprised of the departments of Archaeology, English Language and Literature, American Culture and Literature, Turkish Literature, Philosophy, Translation and Interpretation, and the program in Civilization, Cultures, and Ideas, we encourage interdisciplinary approaches to the Humanities.

Our faculty members are dedicated to research as well as teaching, and have been trained in major North American, European, and Turkish universities. We offer B.A. degrees as well as graduate degrees in select departments. We aim to help students develop rigorous reading and writing skills, inter-cultural sensitivities, and critical and analytic thinking abilities. All of these skills will, we believe, be of great value in preparing our students for their lives and careers in a globalized world.

Photograph: Bruno Vandermeulen and Danny Veys