Faculty of Islamic Studies

I am Asım Yapıcı. I'm a professor of psychology of religion. I work at Social Sciences University of Ankara. My hometown is Kayseri. My formal years were in Kayseri and Ankara. Our institute is called the Institute of Islamic Studies. Our institute was established within Social Sciences University of Ankara in 2013 with the decision of YÖK (Higher Education Council). We are located in the historical campus in Ulus district. So far, we have 66 graduates. the number of students attending the current master's and doctorate is around 213. Every day, our number of graduates and the number of students is increasing. Institutes are shaped through departments and programs, and the research areas become established according to these factors. In our institute, we first need to determine the program and the departments, and then research fields are decided. We have approximately 11 programs in 5 departments. These are the Master's and Doctorate programs in Philosophy and Religious Sciences. Under this program are subsciences: Sociology of Religion, Psychology of Religion, History of Religion, Religious Education, Islamic Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, History of Logic and Philosophy. These are the branches of philosophy and religious sciences. We have a master's and doctorate program in Fundamental Islamic Sciences. This program has its own subbranches. Interpretation, Hadith, Fiqh, Kelam, History of Denominations, Arabic and Sufism. We have a master's program in Islamic History and Arts. The subbranches of this program are: Islamic History, Islamic Arts, Religious Music. We also have a master's program called Spiritual Guidance and Counseling, both with and without thesis. We have a master's program titled Islamic Economics and Finance with and without thesis. Our thesis program is provided in 3 languages, Turkish, Arabic and English. The aim of the institutes is to produce knowledge and circulate the knowledge that is produced. We aim to train students having this in mind. Institutes prepare the individuals so they can produce quality work. Therefore, in the first stage, it is aimed to develop Islamic, religious, cultural and civilization-building knowledge. There may be different issues. For example: How do a teenager's religious doubts arise, What kind of crises occur when you’re middle aged? How does society affect the individual and vice versa in terms of religion? There are also artistic studies in our institute about how Turkish-Islamic art has evolved and how it is today. All these areas form our fields of study or subjects.