Within the scope of the 2021-2022 academic semester opening event, the Department of Sociology of our University held an ‘opening lecture’ for the students of the department on October 12, 2021 at Aşık Paşa Conference Hall. The event started with the opening speech of Prof. Dr. Mahmut Hakkı Akın, the head of the Sociology Department, and Prof. Dr. Veysel Bozkurt from the Department of Economic Sociology of Istanbul University delivered a seminar titled “Social Effects of the Pandemic”.
Prof. Bozkurt stated that the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seriously affected and changed everyone’s life both in our country and throughout the world, has transformed social life and public health in every conceivable field from production to consumption, from international relations to education, from transportation to entertainment, and from religious worship to sports events. In this context, he noted the increase in people’s existential anxieties about catching viruses, losing loved ones, and death and underlined that as the pandemic prolonged, fatigue, boredom and increasing depression symptoms have become the most important problems. He noted that with the increase in stress during pandemic periods, more than half of the society are now feeling lonely due to social distance measures as such security measures usually weaken interpersonal relations. He also underlined that the importance of social values and solidarity, common consciousness, common attitude, and common responsibilities should not be overlooked to eliminate the negative effects of the pandemic and ended his talk by adding that people feel strong and secure when they have strong social ties.
Following the seminar, the event continued with the orientation program prepared by the department students as part of the opening .
The event received with a great deal of participation and interest and ended with a group photo shoot.