Asli Ünlüsoy, Msc
Aio/PhD Student - Faculty of Social Sciences,
Langeveld Institute for the Study of Education and Development in Childhood and Adolescence, Utrecht University

E-mail: a.unlusoy[@]uu.nl

Research areas
Learning and socialization theories; (new)media practices; digital literacies; popular culture and youth; social networks.

Education
• MSc in Dev. and Socialization in Childhood & Adolescence (Research Master, Utrecht University, the Netherlands), 2009
• MSc in Early Childhood Education (METU, Ankara, Turkey), 2007
• BA in Journalism (Ankara University, Turkey), 2004

Biography
I discovered my interest in the educational value of (new)media products directed at children and youth during my undergraduate studies in Journalism. In order to gain in-depth information about learning theories I continued my studies with the Early Childhood Education Master Program, in Middle East Technical University (METU). My master thesis (The Spiderman Phenomenon: Young Children’s Understanding of Cartoon Superheroes, 2007) was about the influence of popular culture icons in kindergarten classrooms and gendered perceptions of these icons. I used qualitative methods such as content analysis to analyze the data, which included observations of free-play sessions, interviews with and drawings of children. After my studies in METU I have been awarded with a full scholarship by Rotary Foundation to study in the Netherlands. Here I have participated in a Research Master’s program Development and Socialization in Childhood and Adolescence (DaSCA) in Utrecht University, where I experienced an interdisciplinary research environment and improved my quantitative analysis skills greatly. My thesis here tackled the multi-dimensional nature of today’s (new) literacy practices (Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Out-of-school Literacy Practices: A Multifaceted Literacy Approach, 2009).
Currently I am a member of Wired Up research team and a PhD candidate at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. My project in Wired Up brings together all the former disciplines I have experience with; learning and socialization theories, (new)media practices, digital literacies and youth cultures. Moreover, this project takes into account the migrant condition, which I easily relate to and very keen to study.

Conferences
-Participating in a mediated world. Platform for Communication, Media, and Information (CMI) within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Amsterdam.
"Interfaces among new media, learning and socialization and the migrant".
Asli Ünlüsoy presented the paper she prepared with Mariëtte de Haan and Kevin Leander. 26 November, 2009.

-DIASPORA, MIGRATION AND MEDIA SECTION - European Communication Research and Education Association
Two-day workshop: Diasporas, Migration and Media: Crossing Boundaries, New Directions.
Wired Up team paper presentation: At Home in the Web. The diasporic networks of migrant youth: learning and identity construction online November 6-7 2009 Utrecht University, Netherlands.

Publications

Conferences
- ISCAR 2011 poster: Youth Networks: Ethno-Cultural Diversity and Informal Learning Relations Online
(click to download as .pdf)

Journal articles
-Unlusoy, A., Haan, de M., Leseman, P. M., & Kruistum, v. C. (in press). Gender differences in adolescents’ out-of-school literacy practices: A multifaceted approach. Computers and Education, doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2010.03.007.

-Unlusoy, A., Haan, de M., & Leander, K. (in press). Netwerken van jongeren als nieuwe leeromgevingen. Pedagogiek, Themanummer.