On May 28th, I had the pleasure of joining a conversation with Associate Professor Gökçe Dervişoğlu Okadan, a leading voice in the cultural management field and someone I deeply respect — both as an esteemed professor and a valued colleague. As a 2017 graduate of Istanbul Bilgi University’s Cultural Management MA program (where Prof. Okadan also supervised my thesis), this encounter carried a special personal resonance.
Our discussion centered on one of today’s most pressing topics in the cultural sector: how we define, measure, and report social impact in cultural management. We reflected on our parallel journeys — sharing how we both shifted from undergraduate backgrounds in other fields into cultural management — and exchanged insights from our current efforts to deepen the field’s capacity to demonstrate its value.
It was a privilege to share space with Ass. Prof. Okadan once again, this time not only as a former student, but as a colleague engaged in shaping the evolving conversation on culture and impact.
Burak Mert 