Prof. Meryem HAYIR KANAT

Meryem Hayır Kanat completed her undergraduate education in the Department of Geography at Istanbul University between 1984 and 1988. She completed her master’s studies in Human and Economic Geography at the Institute of Social Sciences of the same university between 1988 and 1991 with her thesis titled “The Impact of the E-5 Highway on Surrounding Settlements: The Mimar Sinan–Silivri Section / Istanbul.”

She subsequently completed her doctoral studies between 1995 and 2002 at the Department of Geography and the Department of Educational Sciences at the University of Mannheim, Germany. Her PhD dissertation focused on the development of industry and settlements along the coast of the Gulf of İzmit and related location problems (Siedlungs- und Industrieentwicklung am Golf von İzmit und ihre Standortprobleme). During her doctoral studies, she worked as a Geography Teacher at the Ministry of National Education.

After completing her PhD, she served as an Assistant Professor (Yrd. Doç. Dr.) in the Department of Geography, Division of Human and Economic Geography at Sakarya University between 2004 and 2011, where she also undertook responsibilities during the establishment of the department. She received the title of Associate Professor on February 21, 2011.

In 2011, she worked as a visiting researcher for three months at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography in Germany. On January 1, 2012, she began working as a faculty member in the Department of Social Studies Education at Yıldız Technical University. During the Fall and Spring semesters of 2019–2020, she served for one year as a visiting professor in the Department of Urban Ecology at the University of Salzburg, Austria. In June 2021, she was appointed as a Professor at the Department of Social Studies Education, Faculty of Education, Yıldız Technical University.

The research of Prof. Dr. Meryem Hayır Kanat focuses on developments and transformations in metropolitan areas of developing countries. She continues her studies on the use and transformation of natural recreation areas in the Istanbul metropolitan area.