Seda is the Researcher Development Coordinator at the Koç University Vice President for Research and Development (VPRD), responsible for initiating, delivering, coordinating, and inspiring development experiences for postgraduate and post-doctoral researchers. Her work also helps the University to meet the strategic priorities identified in its research mission, as well as the requirements of European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research Award.
Seda has come to this role from an academic position as an Experienced Researcher at the University of Evry via being a Careers Counselor for students at Koç. She became interested in researcher development several years after she graduated with her PhD, when she had experiences working 1-on-1 with 12 PhD researchers as part of her duties at a European Union FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) in Paris. This helped her realize that she valued supporting researchers on their doctoral journeys, leading to her move to Koç’s Career Development Center as a Career Counselor. Her passion about enhancing the postgraduate researcher success lead her to introduce Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework (RDF) Planner as an online tool designed solely for researchers. The 1-on-1 career counseling sessions and the pilot study she conducted with Koç researchers regarding the use of RDF Planner revealed that researcher development is an on-going process and requires the introduction of specific and suitable methods of support.
With the aim of supporting postgraduate researchers in their personal effectiveness, academic and professional development during their studies at Koç, Seda took up the newly created role of Researcher Development Coordinator in November 2017. Since then, she had amazing experiences working 1-on-1 with over 100 postgraduate researchers, learned about their priorities and concerns. For the Spring 2018 term, she developed a tailored program named KU-RDP, which mapped to the RDF aiming to broaden Koç researchers’ skills and knowledge by including various support offices. She also created teaching materials, designed and delivered workshops to take part in the KU-RDP. She came to realize over time that a University-wide, in-depth understanding of postgraduate researcher needs and expectations is a must. And for the first time in Turkey, Koç University participated in Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) between March-May 2018, which is administered by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in the UK. This helped build a picture of strengths and weakness and informed development and enhancement plans of the University regarding its researcher experience.
Throughout her career, Seda took part in numerous research projects specializing on the issues of job finding, career development, work identity, and organizational inequalities. She won two Marie Curie European Union awards and presented her work at international conferences. Seda also had the chance to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students on a variety of topics including Corporate Governance, Business in Social and Political Context, and Human Resources Management. The teaching skills she developed at Warwick Business School helped her immeasurably in understanding of the challenges facing learners, especially postgraduate researchers.
Seda’s past positions include Experienced Researcher at Evry University in Paris, and Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Gender Studies at Koç University in Istanbul. Seda enjoys professional development herself and got her Coaching Certification from ADLER International Coaching College in March 2016. She is a CharacterIX Enneagram Coach as well as Points of You Coaching Game Practitioner. She finished a Researcher Development Train the Trainer Course from Rodetal in 2018. She also completed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training from the Mindfulness Institute in February 2019. She has recently been certified as a Mental Health First Aider by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England. Seda keeps herself updated with the existing and new approaches to the researcher development field by combining practice with pedagogical, theoretical, conceptual influences within the field.
Seda graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University with a BA Hons degree in Business Administration. She completed an MA program in Sociology at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom where she was also awarded a PhD in Sociology.
Telephone: +90 212 338 1242
Location: Presidency Building, Block 2, 1stFloor, 111B
