Berkcan Boz is a research assistant and first year PhD student in the department of physical education and sport at Ege University, Faculty of Sport Sciences in İzmir, Turkey. He completed his bachelor’s degree as a valedictorian in 2017 and earned his MSc degree in June, 2020 with his master thesis investigating identity development and school alienation in student athletes and non-athletes. As an early stage researcher, his research overview and interests focus on three topics as follows: student athletes, sociology of science and integrated PE. Berkcan’s nomination for the AIESEP Developing Country Scholar Award came from Dr. Gıyasettin Demirhan. At the AIESEP 2021 Scientific Conference, he will present his researches in two oral presentation conducted with his supervisor Dr. Olcay Kiremitci. The first study based on his master thesis entitled “Might Early Identity Maturation Be a More Inclusive Concept than Identity Foreclosure?” reconsiders the concept of “identity foreclosure in student athletes” and suggesting that over-generalizations and single-directional evaulations should be avoided while evaluating student athletes’ developments. In memory of Dr. Ekim Pekünlü, Berkcan concludes the study with the saying: “All generalizations are false, including this one.” His second presentation, on the other hand, entitled “#2 Black Hole Effect in Science: A Journey from Economy Class Turkish PE Researches to (A)Broader Sense” re-evaluates critical concept and researcher position with a broader sense suggested in his previous study “Economy Class Journey into the Black Hole” that he discussed PE research(er)s’ biased dispositions in Turkey.
