Oyman Basaran

Affiliation: Sociology
Associate Professor of Sociology, on leave for the 2024–2025 academic year

Oyman Basaran, Associate Professor, joined the faculty at Bowdoin as an Assistant Professor in 2017. His scholarly interests include medicine, science and technology, and social theory. He teaches courses on sociology of medicine and mental health, science and technology, and the Middle East. His previous research examined the relationship between masculinity, homosexuality, and the Turkish military. His first book titled Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey (University of Texas Press 2023) examines the medicalization of male circumcision in Muslim-majority Turkey. Combining medical sociology and political economy with psychoanalytical theory, the book challenges the prevailing wisdom that regards medicalization as a smooth and univocal development and enriches our sociological understanding of the subjectivity of medical professionals.

His current project focuses on the relationship between science, truth, and politics. By examining the scientific research at the margin of the mainstream scientific community, his project seeks to understand how institutional practices and hierarchies, epistemological settlements, and organizational exclusions converge to form the basis for the scientific orthodoxy today.

Oyman Basaran headshot

Education

  • PhD, Sociology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • MA, Sociology, Bogazici University
  • BA, Philosophy, Bogazici University