Featured Member Profile: Çağdaş Dedeoğlu
Çağdaş Dedeoğlu has been an ISSRNC member since October 2015, joining to present a paper on Islamic environmental ethics at the Society’s conference in Gainesville. He also presented a paper at the 2017 ISSRNC conference in New York titled “Political Ecological Outcomes of Religiosity in Turkey.” He currently works as a research scholar at the University of Florida’s Department of Religion. Prior to that, he was Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Istanbul Arel University in Turkey.
Growing up in Turkey’s Thrace Region, Dedeoğlu witnessed how one of the most fertile regions of the country could be exposed to the chemical pollution as a result of industrialization. Inspired by his late mother’s educational career and his father’s local environmental activism he is passionate about engaging environmental issues in the classroom. Believing in consilience—the unity of knowledge—he focuses on the themes of political ecology of religion, science, and security from a critical perspective.
After studying political science at Bogazici University, Dedeoğlu focused on his graduate studies on nature-related security concerns, including food and water insecurities. His M.A. thesis ultimately turned into a book about this topic, “The Nature of Security, the Security of Nature.” Building on this research, his doctoral work questioned the hegemonic relationship between Islam, nature and politics in Turkey in the context of the current ecological crisis.
Dedeoğlu’s current appointment at the University of Florida centers around a research project exploring Sufi understandings of nature as an alternative to hegemonic rationality. He is also interested in the theory and methodology of social scientific research about the relationship between religiosity and environmental behavior. These interests animate his involvement with other research organizations, including the Political Ecology Group in Turkey and the international Political Ecology Network.
You can learn more about his research and publications on his website or follow him on Twitter (@CagdasDedeoglu).
