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Presentation at Turkologentag 2025: Dr. Gülşah Başkavak to Discuss Technological Innovations in Turkish Healthcare and Surgical Practices

We are pleased to share that Dr. Gülşah Başkavak, a valued member of our research team, has been accepted to present her work at the Turkologentag 2025 – Fifth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, to be held at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany from 18-20 September 2025.

Dr. Başkavak’s paper, entitled “From Scalpel to Robotic Surgery: Technological Change, Healthcare, and Surgeons in Turkey”provides a sociological analysis of how robotic and AI-driven innovations are reshaping surgical practices in Turkey. It explores the transformation of surgeons’ skills, professional autonomy, and operating room dynamics, while critically engaging with broader implications for healthcare infrastructure and patient perception.

Turkologentag stands as one of the premier academic gatherings in the field, convened triennially under the auspices of the Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT). The conference convenes leading scholars from across Europe and beyond, serving as fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. It facilitates the dissemination of cutting-edge research across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including Ottoman and Turkish Studies, cultural studies, art history, musicology, women and gender studies, sociology, migration studies, social anthropology, digital humanities, language acquisition, language teaching, and multilingualism.

We congratulate Dr. Başkavak on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to the insights her presentation will bring to Sociology and the growing field of STS (Science and Technology Studies) within the context of Turkey.

Stay tuned for updates from the conference this September!

Introducing the Official MediCluster Logo

We are excited to announce that our research project MediCluster finally has its very own logo! This project explores how local production practices, digital transformation, and global innovation dynamics converge in three medical instrument clusters: Tuttlingen (Germany), Sialkot (Pakistan), and Samsun (Türkiye).

A special thank-you goes to 11ftahead for designing our new logo. Their creative approach has perfectly captured MediCluster’s mission to illuminate the complex interactions between local manufacturing, global value chains, and regional innovation cultures.

We hope this new visual identity will make MediCluster’s goals and findings more recognizable to both our academic colleagues and the broader public. Stay tuned for more insights, publications, and behind-the-scenes perspectives from our ongoing research!

— The MediCluster Team

OUR RESEARCHERS’ PRESENTATION ACCEPTED FOR 4S SEATTLE 2025 CONFERENCE

4S (Society for Social Studies of Science), one of the world’s leading conferences on STS (Science and Technology Studies / Science, Technology, and Society, https://www.4sonline.org/what_is_4s.php), will take place in Seattle this year. Within the scope of our project, Dr. Melike Şahinol and Dr. Gülşah Başkavak have been accepted to present their papers at this prestigious conference! Şahinol and Başkavak will present the paper titled “Bridging Craft and Innovation: Surgical Instrument Manufacturing Between the Global South and North” at the conference, which will take place on September 3 – 6, 2025.

A paper challenging regional considerations from an STS perspective

Within the scope of the DFG-funded project MediCluster, “Bridging Craft and Innovation: Surgical Instrument Manufacturing Between the Global South and North” focuses on the manufacturing centers of medical instruments. Emphasizing knowledge, labor and technology interacting between the global North and South, the paper examines the clusters of Tutlingen (Germany), Sialkot (Pakistan) and Samsun (Türkiye) in their interrelatedness. In this way, the study aims to overcome the limitations of a regional perspective and attempts to explore the dynamic movement of expertise, trade and technology on a global scale. By focusing on different geographical clusters globally, the study makes an assessment based on the STS perspective between separate innovation clusters.

About the 4S 2025 Seattle Conference

The 4S 2025 Conference stands out as one of the most prestigious events in STS. Bringing together academics, researchers and experts from around the world every year, this conference provides an important platform for the most up-to-date discussions in the field of STS.

This year’s conference, which will be held in Seattle, themed “Reverberations” (https://4sonline.org/about_the_conference_seattle.php) invites participants to explore how science and technology echo across time, space, and cultures. The concept of reverberation—whether as seismic waves, cultural echoes, or transcontinental impacts—offers a rich framework for examining the interconnectedness of past and present, local and global, and material and symbolic practices. From Indigenous resistance in the Seattle region to the global ripple effects of technological innovations, the theme encourages a deep engagement with the layered histories and futures of STS.

Our researchers Şahinol & Başkavak will present a paper (see below) that resonates with this theme by examining the relationship between global power balances and local production practices in the context of medical technologies. By focusing on how global norms and local innovations reverberate through medical production processes, our contribution aims to shed light on the complex interplay of politics, economics, and technology in shaping healthcare systems worldwide.


“Bridging Craft and Innovation: Surgical Instrument Manufacturing Between the Global South and North”

Melike Şahinol & Gülşah Başkavak (Orient-Institut Istanbul, Türkiye)

Abstract:

Manufacturing practices of medical instruments are shaped by transnational networks of knowledge, labor, and technology that link regions across the Global South and North. While industrial automation increasingly dominates medical manufacturing, craft-based expertise remains essential for precision surgical tools. This paper examines the interconnected manufacturing clusters of Tuttlingen (Germany), Sialkot (Pakistan), and Samsun (Türkiye), exploring how knowledge, labor, and materials circulate across these sites and contribute to the evolving landscape of medical instrument production.

By situating manufacturing practices of surgical instruments within an oceanic framework, this study challenges rigid territorial lenses that separate “Asian,” or “Middle Eastern” studies. Instead, it highlights the dynamic movement of expertise, trade, and technology across the Indian Ocean and beyond. The concept of echoes and extensions provides a perspective to analyze how historical craft traditions resonate across time (echo) and adapt to changing global production networks (extend). Türkiye’s position between the Global South and North offers a compelling case to investigate how globalized medical manufacturing shapes and is shaped by regional innovation cultures, value chains, and geopolitical contexts.

By bringing manufacturing practices of medical instruments in globally different situated innovation clusters into a transregional frame, this contribution expands STS discussions on medical technologies beyond national or continental categories. It critically engages with decolonial and transnational STS perspectives, emphasizing the need to rethink established narratives of innovation, expertise, and technological development in the global medical technology landscape.

🎉 MediCluster Kick-off at the Orient-Institut Istanbul

On February, 19th the MediCluster project team celebrated its official kick-off at the Orient-Institut Istanbul (OII). MediCluster is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 551920228  (PI: Dr. Melike Şahinol). The kick-off event brought together OII colleagues and staff, providing an opportunity to introduce the research project, exchange ideas, and mark the beginning of this exciting collaboration.

Colleagues from the Orient-Institut Istanbul (OII) at the MediCluster kick-off event
Colleagues from the Orient-Institut Istanbul (OII) at the MediCluster kick-off event

During the gathering, the aims and scope of MediCluster were presented, highlighting its comparative study of medical instrument manufacturing in the innovation clusters of Tuttlingen (Germany), Sialkot (Pakistan), and Samsun (Türkiye). The discussion covered the historical roots of production in the respective clusters, influences on contemporary manufacturing practices, and the factors shaping these processes. We also exchanged ideas on the infrastructural conditions for mutual supply chains, approaches to field research, and workflow considerations.

The event was a wonderful occasion to connect with colleagues, share perspectives, and set the stage for future academic exchanges. A warm thank you to everyone at the OII for the warm welcome and inspiring conversations!

📸 

Stay tuned for more updates as the project unfolds! 🚀