Practices of existence of religious students in university as a secular setting: The case of METU

This study discusses the tensions between religiosity and public sphere at Middle East Technical University (METU). There is a problematic and under tension relationship between religion and public sphere. It is because of that seculerism which emerged as a modern way of life wants to manage and control the public sphere. Although seculerism controls the management of the public sphere and wants to confine religion only to the private spheres, the religion transcends the boundaries drawn by seculerism through education and urbanization, and somehow incorporated into the public sphere. This inclusion is accompanied by many problems and tension. Today, one of the best examples of this problematic relationship between religion and the public sphere is seen on university campuses which have secular public qualifications. University campuses are places that host hedonist youth culture. When the academic needs of university are also added to these hedonist and secular culture, some tensions emerge between "the religious calendar-academic calendar" and "Islam in theory-Islam in practice". As a result of these tensions, new forms of religiosities are emerged from the interactions with the other in terms of the religious and cultural capital possessed. So individuals reestablish their identities in the public domain like Central, Periphery and Semi-Periphery. This cultural settlement, which is based on action and context, can sometimes be temporary and sometimes permanent. In this study, the establishment of religious identities in the secular public sphere has been tried to be described by in-depth interviews with religious students at METU, which has radical secular qualities. Because the public sphere is the domain of interactions, the theory of symbolic interactionism is used as the basis of this study. Key Words: METU, Public sphere, Religiosity, Seculerism, Symbolic interaction