BY İREM NAZ DUYMUŞ (AMER/IV) & EDA EMEKOĞLU (AMER/IV)
Dearest Bilkenter,
Welcome—or welcome back. A new academic year has begun, bringing with it new faces, familiar corridors, hurried mornings, reunions, beginnings and the usual question of whether everything will somehow fall into place.
And with the beginning of another year, “Four Editorials for Bilkent” returns to the pages of Bilkent News.
For me, this return feels particularly literal. After spending the past semester away on Erasmus, I find myself once again walking through Bilkent—returning to its routines, its people, its strangely familiar chaos and, of course, to this little corner that Eda Emekoğlu and I began together.
For those who were with us last year, consider this a reunion. For those who have only just arrived at Bilkent, allow us to introduce ourselves.
Four Editorials for Bilkent is a monthly editorial cycle built around four different ways of looking at university life and the world around it.
“Foresight” looks ahead—to what is coming, changing or worth anticipating.
“Forward” turns toward culture: films, books, exhibitions, artworks, music and the many things that shape the way we see and experience life.
“Formula” is where we loosen things up with quizzes, campus observations, games and the occasional question no one knew they needed answered.
And “For the Record” looks back at what has stayed with us and what deserves another thought.
But the column has never been limited to four neat categories. Here, we talk about everything from film recommendations to art galleries, from interpreting a painting to reflecting on culture, campus life and the everyday things that catch our attention. Most importantly, we do so from our own perspective—not with definitive answers, but as invitations to look again, think differently or simply notice something we might otherwise pass by.
That is what we hope to collect here.
The column is written by The Four Columnists, co-written by İrem Naz Duymuş and Eda Emekoğlu, but it was never intended to belong only to us. Throughout the year, we hope once again to welcome guest writers, professors, students and anyone who has something worth adding to the conversation.
And since I have been away for a while, I am curious: what happened at Bilkent while I was gone? What did I miss? What changed, and what somehow remained exactly the same?
If there is something you think deserves a place here—a story, an observation, a recommendation, or simply a thought—you are always welcome to share it with us.
In four parts, a mind unfolds.
In four parts, the editorial takes shape. In four parts, another Bilkent year will be told—scattered, inevitably, but still whole.
May these words find you, as Bilkent so often does: unexpectedly, and all at once.
