Hasan Bülent Kahraman (born September 1, 1957, Kars), is a Turkish academic, author, art critic, and curator. He worked as a lecturer, and had administrative duties at Hacettepe University, Middle East Technical University, Bilkent University, Sabancı University, Princeton University, Kadir Has University, and Netkent University as the Dean, Vice-Rector and Rector. He has been working as an independent writer, art critic, curator, and cultural critic since 1977. He currently serves as the rector of Işık University.
He was also a member of the Advisory Board of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) and served on the Advisory Board of the Istanbul Biennial (1992-2005). Since 2010, he has been the General Coordinator and a member of the Executive Committee of Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Akbank Sanat, and the Board of Trustees of Sakıp Sabancı Museum. He was the founder, director, and curator of Gallery KHAS, the art gallery of Kadir Has University. He also served as the Artistic Director of the Working Committee in Turkey for the Europalia Arts Festival held in Brussels in 2015. His research interests include Turkish politics, political theories, social theory, post-structural philosophy, cultural studies, visual theory, modern Turkish literature, and Turkish popular culture.
Early life and education Hasan Bülent Kahraman started his primary education in Kars and completed it in Ankara. He completed his secondary education at TED Ankara College. He got his academic degrees from the Department of Civil Engineering at Gazi University (BS), Economics Department at Hacettepe University (MS), and Political Science Department at Bilkent University (PhD).
Career
Early professional life Kahraman started his professional life in May 1980 at the Department of Dams of the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works. In 1981, he received an acceptance first from the Department of Economics at Middle East Technical University (METU) and then from the Department of Economics at Hacettepe University. He decided not to pursue the courses at METU because he would not be allowed to continue his job at the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), so he chose to continue his studies at Hacettepe University. After receiving his Master of Science degree in 1984, he went to the United States. He pursued post-graduate studies in art theory at Columbia University, New York. On his return to Turkey, he decided to resign from his positions at academic and public offices primarily due to the new rules established in the higher education system by the military junta. Until 1991, Kahraman took up management positions in the private sector and worked as a freelance writer of literary and art reviews. Together with his friends, he published Kalın, a magazine of art criticism, which remained to this day as one of the most influential art magazines ever published in the field of contemporary art. He wrote most of the articles either in his own name or under different pen names (Hüseyin Yavuz and Ferit Doğrusöz).
Academic career Kahraman suspended his academic career in 1985 to commit himself to the contemporary art world as a free-lance art and literary critic and publisher of a journal. In 1993, he received an invitation from Erdağ Aksel, the Department Head of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Bilkent University, and he decided to resume his academic career on a part-time basis. He became a full-time lecturer at Bilkent University after leaving his post at the Ministry of Culture. At Bilkent University, Kahraman collaborated with various lecturers of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, including Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Michael Morris, Fulya Erdemci, Selim Birsel, and Erol Akyavaş. He delivered several lectures on art, which included ‘Art and Culture’, ‘Concepts and Issues in Contemporary Art’, and ‘What is Contemporary’. At Bilkent University, Department of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, Hasan Bülent Kahraman was also responsible for the coordination of the ‘Art and Culture’ course. The department became one of the first institutions that laid the cultural and theoretical foundations of visual design within the context of social and human sciences in Turkey.
In 1993, Kahraman was selected by USIS to join the Young Leaders Program. He went to the United States and participated in the “Pluralism and Multiculturalism in America” program.
Sabancı University In 1995, Sabancı University was founded after a search conference and invited Hasan Bülent Kahraman to take active role in the design committee of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences program. The program design consisted of innovative principles such as a common core-curriculum in the initial three terms, a non-departmental interdisciplinary educational approach, opportunities for students to switch between departments and faculties, and student admission procedures directly into faculties rather than specific departments (programs). Once the program design was completed in 1998, Sabancı University was officially established, and this was when Hasan Bülent Kahraman was invited to be one of the founding members as part of the academic staff of Sabancı University. He accepted the invitation and moved to Istanbul.
Kahraman was appointed Coordinator of the Foundations Development Program (FDP) of Sabancı University. He set forth the fundamental principles of the program that would allow for a novel and more functional method of teaching the English language. He recruited the lecturers and worked in close collaboration with them to prepare the course contents and textbooks. At the same time, he also worked on the basic Social Sciences program. He created a new approach to teaching Turkish Language and Literature, and the History of Turkish Revolution courses as part of the Foundations Development Program. He continued teaching both of these courses during his time at Sabancı University.
Later on, he decided to withdraw from his post as the Coordinator of FDP to pursue his academic and intellectual studies and interests. However, he continued teaching as a member of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, where he worked as the Coordinator of the Visual Arts and Communication Design Program. The program adopted an integrated educational method, in which applied art education was combined with theoretical foundational courses, an approach that was generated at Bilkent University. In accordance with the interdisciplinary structure of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sabancı University, Kahraman taught the courses of Political Science and Art Theory simultaneously.
At Sabancı University, Kahraman designed and taught a series of courses that focused on the modernisation of Turkish art since the early 20th century. ‘The Making of Modern Turkey’ was a modular course that was designed for two semesters. While the first semester focused on the period between 1908 and 1923, the second semester explored the period between 1950 and 2010. His other courses included ‘Turkish Social Thought’, ‘Post-1960 Turkish Politics’, ‘From Modern to Contemporary: Art of the 20th century’, ‘Post-1960 Turkish Art’, ‘Vision, Representation, Cinema’, and ‘Visual Ideology and Culture’. These courses were followed by ‘Major Works of Cinema’, which consisted of lectures delivered to over 200 students. Before leaving Sabancı University in 2010, Hasan Bülent Kahraman established the program of Art, Theory and Criticism and taught its first semester courses.
Over these years, he visited the Columbia University and Michigan State University as a lecturer and research fellow, and in 2005, he was selected to receive a fellowship as Ahmet Ertegün Professor at Princeton University. He gave graduate and post-graduate lectures on Turkish modernization and Turkish social thought at the Department of Near Eastern Studies. During this time, he also gave lectures at the Universities of Michigan, Columbia and at UCLA. He became an Associate Professor of Political Thought, and on various occasions, he organised workshops at Princeton University.
After Sabancı University In 2010, Kahraman left Sabancı University to be able to spend more time in the city and concentrating more on the practical side of the contemporary art. Having accepted an offer from Kadir Has University, he was appointed Vice Rector & Provost in charge of Academic Affairs. Here, he was instrumental in revising the educational program of the university. He remained in charge of Academic Affairs and served as Vice Rector at Kadir Has University until 2018. He left this office to embark on a new academic project in July 2018 as the Rector of Netkent University, an institution established solely to offer distance learning and evening education programs. As the program was not recognized by the Council of Higher Education (CoHE) in Turkey, and because of the disagreements the Council had with the founders of the institution, he resigned from this position in December 2018. In July 2019, Kahraman was appointed Vice Rector in Charge of Academic Affairs and the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Işık University. Here, he undertook the preparation of the Strategic Plan. He also delivered various lectures in the Science of Art Doctorate Program offered by the Faculty of Fine Arts. In December 2021, he was appointed the Rector of Işık University.
He is a member of the Turkish Social, Economic, Political Research Foundation (TÜSES), SODEV, History Foundation (Turkish: Tarih Vakfı), Middle East Studies Association of North America, American Political Science Association, and College Art Association.
Public service career In 1991, he started working as an Advisor to the General Secretary of the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). He was appointed Consultant to the Ministry of Culture by the DYP-SHP coalition government, which was formed after the elections held the same year. Working together with different Ministers of Culture, he spent a highly active period at this institution until 1996. When Agah Oktay Güner became the Minister of Culture in the same year, Kahraman was the first person to be relieved of his duties, so he tendered his resignation. The last time he held a public office was in May 2014 when he became the Chief Advisor to the 11th President of the Republic of Turkey, Abdullah Gül. He left this office in August 2014.
Career as a columnist Kahraman started publishing his articles in 1985 on the arts and culture pages of Cumhuriyet newspaper although he was not a regular contributor at first. By that time, he had already published articles in various culture and art magazines. In 1991, he started working as a columnist in Güneş newspaper. In addition to his columns, he contributed several article series during the time he worked for this newspaper. He wrote political articles in Yeni Yüzyıl newspaper, which was established in 1995.
He was invited to write for Radikal newspaper, which published its first issue in 1996. He contributed articles to this newspaper until 2005 when he set out to the United States, where he was going for a long-term stay to give lectures at Princeton University. While he was writing for Radikal, he contributed two articles a week at first, which later became three. After a while, he started writing once a week for the Culture & Art page of the same newspaper. He also published his articles in the newspaper’s supplement, Radikal 2. After leaving his job as a columnist at the newspaper, he continued contributing articles regularly to this supplement during his stay in the USA.