Yunus Emre InstituteOn 14 August 2025, the 38th session of the Young Scholar Seminar Series at Yunus Emre Enstitüsü – London will take a thoughtful and deeply human look at some of life’s most universal experiences: how we confront death, carry grief, and make meaning as we move through different stages of life.
Titled “Death Awareness and Meaning in Life: Generational and Developmental Insights,” this special session brings together two researchers from Sivas Cumhuriyet University whose work sheds light on the emotional, spiritual, and familial dimensions of loss.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sema Yılmaz will open the seminar by examining how our awareness and understanding of death evolve from childhood to older adulthood. Drawing on existential psychology and the psychology of religion, she will discuss the ways emotional development, spiritual support, and secure attachment influence the way individuals process mortality across the lifespan. Her talk aims to offer a compassionate, research-based perspective on how our inner world matures as we encounter life’s inevitable transitions.
Following this, Berra Ergül Sezen, currently completing an internship at Yunus Emre Enstitüsü – London, will explore grief not only as a personal experience but as an inherited emotional narrative within families. Through the framework of Bowen’s Family Systems Theory, she will illuminate how unresolved sorrow can echo across generations, shaping relationships, emotional patterns, and our sense of belonging. Her presentation invites participants to consider the subtle threads that link past and present, and how understanding these connections can promote healing and resilience.
Together, the speakers will guide audiences through a reflective conversation on mortality, memory, and meaning—topics that, while often difficult, lie at the heart of what it means to be human. This seminar continues the Young Scholar Series’ mission to highlight emerging academic voices and foster dialogue on issues that bridge psychology, culture, and lived experience.
