It all started with the very first annual conference of OPEN COST Action (CA22121) at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Dr. Carolina Plaza-Colodro and I are in “Working Group 2: Comparative Framework: Developing an Ethics of Context Sensitivity” where we have been discussing the possible ways to develop the comparative framework. We come to a consensus that we will explore some of the keywords defining the relationship between neo-nationalism and higher education and conducting exemplary case studies between our respective countries.

I visited Dr. Plaza-Colodro in the department of Political Science at the University of Salamanca as part of the Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) between Sept 9 - 20, 2024. Based on our academic expertise, we wanted to explore the possibilities of right-wing party manifestos and academic freedom, international engagement and/or open science relationship between Turkey, and Southern Europe (emphasis on Spain). The STSM allowed both of us to foster interdisciplinary collaboration to ensure the rigor and validity of the research results. Overall goal of this STSM was to draft the research proposal and work on the details of data analysis.

During the visit, we started with the theoretical perspective and discussed the contextual differences in terms of higher education systems as well as the political contexts in Turkey and Spain. We realized that these two country cases can be dissimilar in some ways while there are similarities in terms of our topic. The dialogues helped us a better comprehension of research contexts which later led us to methodological preferences we are going to utilize in the research. As our next step, we started investigating the party manifesto index and the details of data analysis.

This STSM has given me the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary collaboration with the Political Science field but more importantly to extend my academic horizon. Being disconnected from the international academic communities for more than three years due to pandemic and lack of resources sometimes, it was particularly meaningful for me. I am more than grateful to have the grant and would like to extend my gratitude to OPEN Cost Action. Beyond our personal collaboration, we believe that the comparative case-oriented research we conduct will set a good example for our WG2. The utilization of case-oriented research and the identification of comparative framework with a context sensitive eye would hopefully be beneficial.

We are both looking forward to sharing our experience and insights in the October 2024 meeting with the working group and having further discussion and feedback on our research.