Zeynep Karahan Uslu is a Turkish communication scientist, public relations specialist, an activist and politician.
Academic career
After graduation in Journalism and Public Relations, Uslu obtained a master’s degree (M.A.) and PhD from the Department of Public Relations and Publicity of the Institute of Social Sciences in 1992 and 1998.
She worked as a faculty member at Istanbul University in the School of Communications (1991-94) and the Sociology Department of the School of Letters (1994-2002). After serving as Deputy at the Turkish Parliament during the 22nd legislative session, she resumed her scientific work, becoming not only the Founder and President of the Centre for Studies on Turkey (TAM) of Istanbul Aydin University, but also working as a faculty member at the School of Communications of the same university (2007-2009). In 2010, she was appointed as an associate professor of Applied Communications. Between 2009 and 2011, she was Adviser to the Chancellor of the TOBB Economy and Technology University and served as faculty member and Chair of the Department of Visual Communication Design and at the School of Fine Arts. After serving once again as Deputy at the Turkish Parliament during the 24th legislative session, she returned to academic life. She founded the Chair of Public Relations and Advertising at Çankaya University of Ankara, where she currently holds the positions of Head of the Department with the academic title of “professor” and Advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Uslu has written, collaborated or edited ten books on political communication, sociology of communication, public diplomacy, inter-ethnic communication, women’s studies and cultural heritage. She was a communications consultant for several political parties.
Politics
In 2002, she was elected as Deputy of Istanbul, gaining the title as "the youngest female parliamentarian" of the 22nd legislative session. In the same period, she was elected as the first Chairperson of Turkish Group at the Euro Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA). In the meanwhile, she was also the Spokeswoman of the Environment Committee, the Deputy Chairperson of the Turkey-Pakistan Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group, Member of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development and the Co-Chair of the Turkey-Italy Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Protocol in the course of the 22nd legislative session of the Turkish Parliament.
She was re-elected to the Parliament during the 24th legislative session as Deputy of Şanlıurfa, being the third female parliamentarian throughout the city’s history. She was elected as the Head of the Turkish Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PA UfM). During the same period, she has contributed to the activities of the Committee on Equal Opportunity for Women and Men of the Turkish Parliament as a member and has chaired the Subcommittee on Gender Equality in the Media, while serving also as Co-Chair of Turkey-Italy Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Protocol.
During her political career, she focused on human rights and freedoms and worked in the fields of women's issues, environmental policies, children's rights and social inequalities, and supported the campaigns and activities of NGOs and various organizations within this context (2). She has prepared reports and legislative proposals focusing on these issues at the Turkish Grand National Assembly, represented her country many times on international platforms (3), and contributed to the development of Turkey's accession process to the European Union through her political roles and tasks. After her term as a deputy, Karahan continued to work in some non-governmental organizations in the aforementioned areas. (4)
Between 2003-2012, she served as the Deputy Chairperson responsible for Public Relations of the AK Party (Justice and Development Party) and she was the person who lead the process of establishment and development of AKİM (AK Party Communication Centre), which contributed to the interactive and a more widespread communication with the citizens. As a successful project AKİM (5) was awarded the “Golden Compass” by TÜHİD (Public Relations Association of Turkey) and the AK Party became the first political party to receive an award in the field of communication.