Course Details

 

Course Details Language of Instruction English Level of Course Unit Doctorate's Degree Department / Program ARCHITECTURE Type of Program Formal Education Type of Course Unit Elective Course Delivery Method Face To Face Objectives of the Course This course aims to equip doctoral students with a theoretically grounded and methodologically informed understanding of how migration intersects with spatial experience, identity processes, and the production of the built environment. By engaging with interdisciplinary scholarship across social and political psychology, urban studies, and critical geography, the course enables students to analyse how spatial arrangements shape belonging, exclusion, adaptation, and well-being among migrant populations. A further objective is to strengthen students’ capacity to integrate psychological concepts into architectural research, allowing them to evaluate how design, planning, and governance decisions influence migrant experiences and social dynamics in cities. By the end of the course, students are expected to: LO1. Critically discuss key theories and concepts linking migration, city, and place in social and political psychology. LO2. Analyse how spatial arrangements such as neighbourhoods, borders, and public spaces influence identity negotiation, belonging, and exclusion. LO3. Evaluate empirical studies and case analyses on migrant well-being, social integration, and spatial justice in varied urban contexts. LO4. Relate debates on multiculturalism, segregation, and urban policy to concrete examples from Tu¨rkiye and other societies. LO5. Prepare and deliver a seminar presentation that synthesises interdisciplinary literature on a selected city, neighbourhood, or migration-related issue. Course Content Migration reshapes urban life through the continuous movement of people, meanings, memories and practices. These movements generate new spatial configurations while also transforming the social and psychological processes that unfold within them. Contemporary cities are increasingly defined by mobile populations whose experiences of belonging, exclusion, adaptation and identity negotiation are deeply connected with the built environment. For doctoral students in architecture, understanding these psychological processes is essential for analysing how spaces are produced, inhabited and contested. Research across social and political psychology shows that processes such as place attachment, social identity, intergroup contact, perceived threat and social cohesion are not abstract interpersonal dynamics but are shaped by spatial arrangements, material infrastructures and the lived experience of neighbourhoods, borders and public spaces (Proshansky, 1978; Hopkins & Dixon, 2006; Lewicka, 2011). Studies of acculturation and migrant well-being demonstrate that the spatial organisation of cities influences the extent to which newcomers can participate, feel recognised and build a sense of belonging (Berry, 1997; Qian & Zhu, 2014). Work on segregation, everyday bordering and urban governance further shows how design choices and policy frameworks can either support integration or reinforce inequalities. This course brings these lines of research together to explore the psychological dimensions of migration as they intersect with architectural thinking. The aim is not to train psychology experts but to equip architecture doctoral students with conceptual and analytical tools that help them critically interpret how migration transforms spatial experiences and how spatial practices, in turn, shape psychological outcomes. Through weekly readings, seminar discussions and student-led analyses, participants engage with interdisciplinary research that connects migrant narratives, spatial justice, identity formation and urban policy. The course prepares students to integrate psychological insights into architectural research, enabling them to develop more socially responsive, ethical and contextually informed approaches to studying and designing the built environment. Course Methods and Techniques This course is organised as an advanced graduate seminar. There are no lectures. Each week focuses on a thematic set of readings that students are expected to complete before class. Sessions will be based on critical discussion, collective interpretation of the readings, and analytical work that connects psychological processes with spatial and urban questions. Students will take turns leading discussion by preparing short guiding notes and questions. Throughout the semester, students will also develop a research-based project in which they examine a migration-related spatial context, supported by weekly feedback during seminar sessions. Course Requirements & Grading Requirement Weight Discussion Questions 10% Critical Response Memos 20% Participation 5% Engagement 15% Discussion Leadership 20% Final Project (Presentation + Paper) 30(10+20)% In total 100% Migration, Space, & Psychological Processes Ahmet Çoymak, Spring 2025-2026 The seminar depends on careful reading, sustained engagement, and collective responsibility for intellectual depth. Students are expected to come to each meeting having read the assigned texts closely and prepared to discuss how the arguments, empirical findings, and conceptual frameworks relate to architecture, space, and the psychological dimensions of migration. Participation: Participation refers to the expectation that students attend every scheduled meeting of the seminar, arrive on time, and remain present for the full session. Because this is a doctoral-level discussion-based course, consistent attendance is essential for the continuity of shared inquiry. Students who must be absent due to an unavoidable and documented reason should notify the instructor in advance. Beyond attendance, participation also includes being adequately prepared for each week’s discussion by completing all assigned readings. Missing more than one session without prior communication may affect the participation grade. Engagement: Engagement concerns the quality of a student’s contribution to the seminar once present. Students are expected to participate in a way that advances the collective analytical work of the group such as raising theoretically informed points, drawing connections across weeks, challenging assumptions in a constructive manner, and helping the discussion move toward conceptual clarity. Engagement will be evaluated in four levels across the semester. Progression depends not only on the student’s individual input but also on their ability to support and enable the participation of others. Interrupting, dominating the floor, or closing down discussion will not be considered positive engagement, even if the student speaks frequently. Discussion Questions: Each week, students are expected to engage closely with the assigned anchor and complementary readings prior to the seminar meeting. To support a rigorous and cumulative discussion culture, students will submit a set of discussion questions through CANVAS no later than one day before the class meeting (TBA). These questions should demonstrate careful reading, conceptual reflection and theoretical integration rather than surface-level queries. High-quality discussion questions typically identify conceptual tensions, methodological concerns, or contradictory claims within a given week’s literature; draw connections between readings across weeks; illuminate gaps, unresolved problems or implicit assumptions in a theoretical framework; or raise issues that may be significant for architectural and spatial analysis. Students may also pose questions that relate psychological constructs to empirical cases, migration debates or spatial practices. The purpose of this task is not to test comprehension but to prepare students for a more grounded, critical and generative discussion in class. Discussion leaders will read these questions in advance and use them to structure the flow of the seminar. However, the primary aim is to cultivate a habit of analytical reading, Prerequisites and co-requisities None Course Coordinator None Name of Lecturers Associate Prof.Dr. AHMET ÇOYMAK Assistants Uzman Ömer Topuz omer.topuz@agu.edu.tr Work Placement(s) No Recommended or Required Reading Resources Stephan, W. G., & Stephan, C. W. (2000). An integrated threat theory of prejudice. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 23–45). Lawrence Erlbaum. Ryder, A. G., Alden, L. E., & Paulhus, D. L. (2000). Is acculturation unidimensional or bidimensional? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 49–65. Benet-Martínez, V., & Haritatos, J. (2005). Bicultural identity integration. Journal of Personality, 73(4), 1015–1050. Pascoe, E. A., & Richman, L. S. (2009). Perceived discrimination and health. Psychological Bulletin, 135(4), 531–554. Brun, C. (2015). Active waiting and changing hopes: Toward a time perspective on protracted displacement. Social Analysis, 59(1), 19–37. Berry, J. W. (1997). Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5–34. Esses, V. M., Medianu, S., & Lawson, A. S. (2013). Uncertainty, threat, and the media. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 13(1), 133–157. Putnam, R. D. (2007). E pluribus unum. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30(2), 137–174. Agier, M. (2002). Between war and city. Ethnography, 3(3), 317–341. Lewicka, M. (2011). Place attachment. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 31(3), 213–230. Castles, S. (2010). Understanding global migration: A social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(10), 1565–1586. Proshansky, H. M. (1978). The city and self-identity. Environment and Behavior, 10(2), 147–169. Castles, S. (2010). Understanding global migration: Towards a new transnational framework. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36(10), 1565–1586. Conway, M. A. (2005). Memory and the self. Journal of Memory and Language, 53(4), 594–628.

 
 
 
 
  
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