Short CV

Begüm Sena Önal obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in "Interior Architecture and Environmental Design" from the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design at Izmir University of Economics as the High Honor and Department’s Top Scoring student among the Class of 2016. Throughout her undergraduate period, she traveled abroad for educational and internship purposes. In July 2014, she spent a month in Japan as an exchange student with a scholarship called JASSO (Japan Student Services Organization). She developed a "Cultural Exchange Center" project with architecture students of Chiba University and had an opportunity to learn about Japanese culture and architectural characteristics. In the Fall semester of 2014-2015, she attended lectures of Interior Design Department for a semester at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK as an Erasmus+ Program exchange student with a scholarship funded by the European Union Commission. In September 2016, she moved to Italy in order to pursue her academic career with a Master's Degree in "Interior Design" at Politecnico di Milano. Through her study period, she received a private scholarship called "Invest Your Talent in Italy" funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. She attended various courses of clued-up professors related to architecture, art, and design such as "Contemporary Interiors", "Arts and Languages of the Present", "Museology in the Contemporary Age", "Temporary Urban Solutions", and "User and Social Innovation" besides the interior, exhibition, and lighting design studio sessions. For her postgraduate thesis, she discoursed on the theory of placemaking in public spaces, the notion of the social fabric and sense of community. Correspondingly, she developed a research thesis titled "Strengthening the Social Fabric through Placemaking in Public Interiors" with the advisory of Assoc. Prof. Davide Fassi. Following her Master's Degree graduation in 2019, Önal moved back to Turkey to continue her academic career with a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Currently, she continues to her Ph.D. program with a doctoral degree scholarship at Yaşar University. Her research interests focus on spatial and cultural studies, history and theory of design, placemaking, space gender relationship, and public interiors.