Karpat Center Events

Bilingual Poetry Reading with Zafer Şenocak and Kristin Dickinson from “First Light”

November 22 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm @ 206 Ingraham Hall

Co-sponsored by the Center for German & European Studies, the Department of German, Nordic & Slavic+, the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies, and the Center for European Studies.

Join us for a bilingual poetry reading in Turkish and English by Zafer Şenocak and translator Kristin Dickinson from Şenocak’s most recent bilingual poetry book First Light (2024). More information about the book can be found here.

Zafer Şenocak is a prolific Turkish-German poet, novelist, essayist, and public intellectual. Born in Turkey, Şenocak moved to Germany as a child and has lived in Berlin as a freelance writer since 1989. He has written widely on issues of diversity in Germany, migration and exile, the Turkish diaspora, and the small distances and great fears of a globalizing Europe. Historical questions of mixed and broken identities are key to his novels, which utilize nonlinear modes of storytelling to emphasize the fragmented nature of memory. Şenocak has been a writer in residence at UC Berkeley, M.I.T., Oberlin College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Arizona. He is currently in residence at the University of Michigan during the Fall 2024 term. Most recently, his Turkish-language poetry has been translated into English by UM Professor Kristin Dickinson, which appeared in a bilingual edition with Zephyr Press in 2024 under the title, First Light.

https://europe.wisc.edu/event/zafer-senocak-lecture/

“Unraveling Bulgarian-Turkish Tensions: The Final Chapter of the Cold War and the United Nations (1984-1989)”

22 November 2024 @1:00 PM US CT @Memorial Union

Bogoya Dimitrov
Visiting International Student, UW-Madison

The presentation will explore the end of the Cold War from a peripheral perspective, focusing on the relationship between Bulgaria and Turkey, two neighboring countries on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. It will highlight an alternative approach to studying the end of the Cold War by examining these peripheral dynamics.

Bogoya Dimitrov is a Visiting International Student at UW-Madison, originally from the European University Institute in Italy. His research centers on Bulgarian-Turkish diplomatic relations during the Cold War.

Organized by the Karpat Graduate Student Society (K-GRADS Society)

Sponsored by the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies, Department of History

“Perceptions of the ‘Other’: Ottoman-Italian Encounters and the Fall of Constantinople”

25 October 2024 @1:00 PM US CT @Memorial Union (Check T.I.T.U)

Selenay Aydın
Dissertator, Department of History
University of Wisconsin-Madison

This talk will delve into the intricate dynamics of Ottoman-Italian relations and how perceptions of the ‘Other’ evolved around the Fall of Constantinople, offering fresh insights into this pivotal moment in history.

Selenay Aydın is a Dissertator in the History Department at UW-Madison, focusing on late medieval and early modern European-Ottoman relations. Her research explores how identity and the concept of the ‘Other’ were shaped through encounters between Ottoman Turks and Italian communities.

Organized by the Karpat Graduate Student Society (K-GRADS Society)

Sponsored by the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies, Department of History

Dar Ghorbat (Turkish Film)

Please mark your calendars for the following movie by UW Cinematheque, co-sponsored by the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies.
Hope to see you there.

FRI., 10/11/2024 @7:00 p.m. 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave.
FAR FROM HOME (DAR GHORBAT)
West Germany, Iran | 1975 | DCP | 93 min. | Turkish, German with English subtitles
Director: Sohrab Shahid-Saless
Cast: Parviz Sayyad, Cihan Anasai, Muhammet Temizkan

Turkish immigrant Husseyin (Sayyad) endures a monotonous existence as a “guest worker” in ’70s West Berlin, sharing a cramped apartment and toiling in a factory. Despite saving diligently with dreams of returning to Turkey, he faces relentless racism and failed romances, finding solace only in his immigrant housemates. Directed by Shahid-Saless during his own pivotal transition from Iran to Berlin, Far from Home is a masterful, poignant depiction of the immigrant experience, rich in restraint and deeply resonant in its portrayal of everyday life.
Largely unseen for decades, a newly restored 4K DCP will be screened.
Presented with the support of the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies at UW-Madison.
https://www.facebook.com/events/486449677454356/

“Twilight Diplomacy” and the Japanese Mirror of the Ottoman Turkish World: Yamada Torajirō’s Illustrated Observations of Turkey – May 1, 2024

Selçuk Esenbel
Emeritus Professor of History
Boğaziçi University, İstanbul, Turkey

A discussion centered on Yamada Torajirō 1911 book Toruko Gakan, Illustrated Observations of Turkey, the Meiji Japanese “Mirror” of the Ottoman Turkish world, and the multi-religious culture in İstanbul.

Prof. Selçuk Esenbel is an expert on Japanese and Asian history, studied at Tokyo International Christian University, and received her Ph.D. in Japanese History from Columbia University.

Organized and Sponsored by the Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies & Center for East Asian Studies

Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Harvey Goldberg Center, East Asian Legal Studies Center, & the Middle East Studies Program

Annual Conference: Environment and Climate Change in the Middle East – April 12, 2024

Hear academic experts across a variety of fields present new and cutting-edge work on this important issue.

The event will be hosted by the Middle East Studies Program at UW-Madison with the co-sponsorship of Kemal H. Karpat Turkish Studies Center.

For detailed information about the conference, please visit MESP: https://mideast.wisc.edu/annual-conference-environment-and-climate-change-in-the-middle-east/

“Rethinking Commemoration: Legacies of 1923 Exchange in the Civilizationist Present” – December 7, 2023

Aslı Iğsız
Associate Professor
New York University

Aslı Iğsız is an Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. Her research interests include political violence, eugenics, humanism, spatial segregation, and forced migration, and cultural policy. Her first book Humanism in Ruins: Entangled Legacies of the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange (Stanford University Press) was published in 2018. Currently, she is working on a new project on the notion of civilizationism in the contemporary world context.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Department of History, and Middle East Studies Program

“Harlem in Germany: Race, Migration, and the American Analogy in the Federal Republic” – April 4, 2023

Lauren Stokes
Assistant Professor
Northwestern University

As West Germans discussed “difference” after 1945, they sought out a self-consciously “Western” and liberal way to discuss difference. The talk examines different examples of how US social science on race shaped policies on migration in West Germany, including how invoking “Harlem” as a racialized space shaped urban housing policy for migrants in Germany, and how a theory of child development borrowed from US social science was used to justify new restrictions on child migration.

Sponsored by Center for German & European Studies, Department of History, and Kemal H. Karpat Turkish Studies Center

“From Gecekondu to A Strangeness: One-Hundred Years of Rural-Urban Relations in Turkey” – March 30, 2023

Reşat Kasaba
Professor

Prof. Reşat Kasaba is an expert on Turkish Modern History. Over the last three decades, his research and publications on the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey in the nineteenth and twentieth century have covered social and economic history, state-society relations, migration, ethnicity and nationalism, modernity and urban history. Professor Kasaba served as the Director of the Jackson School of International Studies in 2010-2020.

“Sovereignty and Autonomy in the Late Ottoman Empire” – February 17, 2023

Aimee M. Genell
Professor

This talk traces the Ottoman roots of the post-imperial political order in the Middle East through an analysis of the inter-imperial contest over Ottoman autonomous provinces. While the Ottoman empire had long maintained flexible administrative arrangements throughout its vast domains, starting in the 1830s, the exigencies of the Eastern Question—European intervention in Ottoman affairs—resulted in the creation of a new type of province. Categorized as “exceptional” by the Ottoman state, the new autonomous provinces (eyâlet-i mümtaze) were the product of an uneasy compromise between the Ottoman and European empires.

Sponsored by Middle East Studies Program, Kemal H. Karpat Turkish Studies Center

“Cybernetics and the End of the Turkish History: Technoscientific Antecedents to the 1980 Coup d’État” – October 21, 2022

Dr. Joakim Parslow
Professor

Sponsored by Program in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology and Kemal H. Karpat Turkish Studies Center

“Writing the Ottomans onto the World Map” – March 8, 2017

Virginia H. Aksan
Emeritus Professor
McMaster University (Ontario, Canada)

This talk will concentrate on new approaches to the study of the Ottoman Empire and Republican Turkey as reflected in research agendas such as trans-cultural, or inter-imperial history.

Aksan is an Emeritus Professor of History at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. Virginia H. Aksan’s research focuses on comparative war and society, especially Ottoman, Austrian & Russian, 18th-mid-19th centuries, including the study of frontiers, the exchange of ideas and technology, and the role of the intermediaries, eastern and western, in the discussion and perception of governance and reform.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies and Madison Association of Turkish Students

“The Ottoman Empire Through a Greek Lens” – November 30, 2016

Molly Greene
Professor
Princeton University

Molly Greene studies the history of the Mediterranean Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the Greek world. Her interests include the social and economic history of the Ottoman Empire, the experience of Greeks under Ottoman rule, Mediterranean piracy, and the institution of the market.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, and Associated Students of Madison (ASM)

“Recent Military Coup in Turkey and its Background” – September 29, 2016

Kemal H. Karpat
Emeritus Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Kemal H. Karpat is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recognized internationally as one of the leading authorities of Ottoman history and modern Turkey, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hilldale Award of the University of Wisconsin, and the Turkish Grand National Assembly’s highest Parliament Honorary Award for his outstanding achievements in the international arena and contributions to Turkish and Ottoman Studies. Prof. Karpat is the honorary member of the Turkish Historical Society, and the author of many books and articles, including The Politicization of Islam (Oxford, 2001).

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies and Madison Association of Turkish Students

“Turkey and the Collapsed State Systems in Syria & Iraq: The Rise of ISIS & the Kurds” – December 2, 2014

Michael M. Gunter
Professor of Political Science
Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville

Micheal M. Gunter is a professor of Political Science at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. Prof. Gunter is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on the Kurds and Kurdish question.

This talk, based on Prof. Gunter’s recent trip to the Kurdish region of Iraq, will cover Turkey as well as ISIS, the contemporary item in the Middle East.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History

“Recent Political and Social Events in Turkey: End of Democracy?” – February 26, 2014

Emeritus Professor of History
University of Wisconsin-Madison

This talk provides a critical survey of the latest socio-political events in Turkey with background references to Islam, democracy and political parties.

Kemal H. Karpat is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Recognized internationally as one of the leading authorities of Ottoman history and modern Turkey, he is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Hilldale Award of the University of Wisconsin, and the Turkish Grand National Assembly’s highest Parliament Honorary Award for his outstanding achievements in the international arena and contributions to Turkish and Ottoman Studies. Prof. Karpat is the honorary member of the Turkish Historical Society, and the author of many books and articles, including The Politicization of Islam (Oxford, 2001).

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History

“Turks and Turkish in Northwestern Europe Migration, Sociopolitical and Linguistic Developments” – March 12, 2013

Carol W. Pfaff
Professor of Linguistics
Freie Universität Berlin & University of Wisconsin-Madison

This talk outlines the historical framework on immigration from Turkey to various countries of Northwestern Europe and the sociolinguistic patterns of language use among first generation of immigrants and their children. The talk also includes details about the educational policy and some aspects of the linguistic development among children and adolescents of the second and third generations.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History

“Turkey’s Path to Economic Success in the Global Crisis” March 6, 2013

İlker Aycı
President, Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency

This talk will address how Turkey remained resilient while exposed to the fluctuations of the global financial crisis, facing perhaps the deepest global economic recession since the 1930s.
Turkey’s remarkable economic prowess will be presented by İlker Aycı, the President of the Investment Support and Promotion Agency which is attached to the Prime Minister’s office, the country’s highest economic policy forum. Mr. Aycı received his master’s degree in International Relations at Marmara University, İstanbul, Turkey. He was a researcher at the University of Leeds, served at various organizations, including Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK), before becoming a key person at the forefront of the Turkey’s economic policies regarding foreign investments and financial services.

Sponsored by Turkish American Cultural Center of Madison

“Bandits and Their Victims: Abduction and Violence in the Early Modern Ottoman World” – February 19, 2013

Leslie Peirce
Silver Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
New York University

Recognized internationally as one of the world’s leading Ottomanists, Peirce has written over two dozen articles and book chapters and two award-winning monographs on the Ottoman Empire: The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (Oxford UP, 1993), and Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab (U of California Press, 2003).

This talk addresses the rise of violence against individuals as a symptom of disorders that beset Ottoman government and society in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It attempts to explain why perpetrators of violence (commonly labeled bandits, eşkıya) were often imperial officials and soldiers and why abduction of women and boys was a familiar element in the bandit’s criminal repertoire. The talk explores the strategic and economic opportunities that made banditry popular and effective among both civilians and disaffected soldiers.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History,  and Associated Students of Madison

“Antakya (Antioch) at Crossroads and the Syrian Crisis” – October 29, 2012

Reşat Kasaba
Stanley D. Golub Professor of International Studies, Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
University of Washington, Seattle

Prof. Reşat Kasaba’s research on the Ottoman Empire and Turkey has covered economic history, state-society relations, migration, ethnicity and nationalism, and urban history. The books and articles that he has written shed light on different aspects of the transformation of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Prof. Kasaba teaches courses on the modern Middle East as well as global history in the modern era.

The talk is about the influx of refugees from Syria, which has turned the city of Antakya in southern Turkey into one of the most important sites in the unfolding conflict in Syria. Antakya’s unique ethnic composition and distinct history makes this city an interesting site both for understanding this conflict and also for gauging its impact on Turkey.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History, Center for European Studies, Associated Students of Madison

“Troy: The Past and Future of a World Heritage Site in Turkey” – September 27, 2012

William Aylward
Professor and Expert on Classical Archeology
University of Wisconsin-Madison

William Aylward has participated in the annual expedition to Troy since 1996 in modern day Turkey and conducted research at Ephesus, Pergamon, Priene, Sardis and Zeugma. His presentation features past archaeological discoveries and Troy’s future.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies and Madison Association of Turkish Students

“Never-Ending Peace Talks/Future of Cyprus” – April 17, 2012

Birol Yeşilada
Professor and Endowed Chair, Contemporary Turkish Studies
Portland State University

This talk will address the current state of peace negotiations in a historical context and look at prospects for a just and lasting peace in Cyprus.

Birol Yeşilada is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Portland State University. He teaches courses on the European Union, international political economy, and Turkish politics.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History, European Center of Excellence, Division of International Studies

“Women’s Rights and Opportunities in Contemporary Turkey” – February 21, 2012

Jenny White
Professor of Anthropology
Boston University

Jenny White is Associate professor of anthropology at Boston University. She is author of three historical novels set in nineteenth-century Istanbul; also of Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks (2012, Princeton University Press); Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics (2002) (Winner of 2003 Douglass Prize for best book in Europeanist anthropology). Professor White has been following events in Turkey since the mid-1970s.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies,  Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History,  Center for German and European Studies, Division of International Studies,  Global Studies

“A New Century and A New Basis for a Turkish-American Partnership” – January 26, 2012

David C. Cuthell
Adjunct Associate Professor
Columbia University, International and Public Affairs

Dr. Cuthell, an Adjunct Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, teaches topics on contemporary Turkey at Columbia University. He served as the Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington D.C. and was a visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University (2005-2011). Dr. Cuthell has taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey where he headed the Turkish, Middle East and Central Asian Studies Program from 2000 through 2004. He received his PhD in History from Columbia University.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Madison Association of Turkish Students, Department of History, Division of International Studies

“Iranian Shiism in Ottoman Sunni Iraq: Prelude to Today” – November 10, 2009

Gökhan Çetinsaya
Professor, President of Istanbul Sehir University

Professor Gökhan Çetinsaya is the President of the İstanbul Şehir University. Dr. Çetinsaya has published The Ottoman Administration of Iraq 1890-1908 (London, 2006) and numerous articles on the history of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, modern Turkish political thought, the history and politics of the Middle East, and Turkish foreign policy.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies and the Department of History

“The New Turkey in the New World” – November 9, 2009

Mustafa Özel
Professor, Chairman of the Foundation for Sciences and Arts of İstanbul, Vice-Chairman of the National Culture Foundation of Turkey
Fatih University, Istanbul

Professor Mustafa Özel teaches international economics and management at Fatih University in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Özel also writes for the Turkish daily Yeni Şafak (www.yenisafak.com) and serves as the editor-in-chief for the monthly Anlayış (www.anlayis.net).

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Department of History

“Turkey’s EU Path: How Long is the Journey?” – September 20, 2006

Soner Cagaptay
Director of Turkish Research Program
Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Soner Cagaptay’s research focuses on Turkey-United States relations, Turkish politics, and Turkish nationalism.

Co sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies, Center for European Studies, European Union Center of Excellence, Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA)

“Understanding Muslim World Through Turkey” – September 18, 2005

Kemal H. Karpat
Professor
UW-Madison

Presentation is a part of Turkish Festival.

Kemal H. Karpat is Professor of History at UW-Madison. He is the author of dozens of books and articles on the Ottoman Empire and modern Middle Eastern and Balkan history

Sponsored by Associated Students of Madison (ASM), Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA), Department of History, Dialogue International

“Our Impressions of Turkey” – September 18, 2005

Speakers:
Mary Helen Becker
Wayne McGown
Willard and Jeanne Warzyn

Presentation is a part of Turkish Festival.  Discussion by American Friends of Turkey.

Sponsored by Associated Students of Madison (ASM), Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA), Department of History, Dialogue International

“Turkish Revival of Byzantine Monuments in Istanbul” – September 18, 2005

John W. Barker
Professor
UW-Madison

Presentation is a part of Turkish Festival.

John. W. Barker is the author of “Justinian and the Later Roman Empire”, a study in the survival of the Roman Empire in its Eastern, or early Byzantine form; and of “Manuel II Palaeologus (1392-1425): A Study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship” which deals with the age in which the last vestiges of Byzantium are being superseded by the new Ottoman state.

In his talk today, Barker will examine the Turkish handling of some of Istanbul’s Byzantine monuments.

Sponsored by Associated Students of Madison (ASM), Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA), Department of History, Dialogue International

“Turkey 50 Years Later” – September 18, 2005

W. Lee Hansen
Emeritus Professor of Economics
UW-Madison

Presentation is part of Turkish Festival.

W. Lee Hansen is an Emeritus Professor of Economics at UW-Madison. Hansen has published extensively in labor economics, the economics of education, and economic education. He is the author of numerous articles as well as the author of eleven books, the most recent one being Academic Freedom on Trial: 100 years of Sifting and Winnowing at the University of Wisconsin (1998), and Discussion Economics (2005).

W. Lee Hansen served in 1952-53 as a member of the Joint American Military Mission for Aid to Turkey. The Mission’s purpose was to help modernize and bolster the military capabilities of the Turkish Army and help to train Turkish soldiers who took part in the UN police action during the Korean War. Hansen recently made a return visit to Turkey, and will report some of his observations.

Sponsored by Associated Students of Madison (ASM), Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia (CREECA), Department of History, Dialogue International

“A New Twist on the South-South Dialogue: Politics, Religion, and Revolution in the Turkey of Ataturk and the Mexico of Cardenas” – September 9, 2005

Asli Odman
Professor
Istanbul Bilgi University

Asli Odman’s research mainly focuses on history of Modern Turkey, comparative political economy, Interwar Mexico, the global labor history of the shipbuilding industry, Ford Motor Company’s global factory history, the restructuration in Turkish higher education in the 2010s by way of corporatization and political uniformization.

Sponsored by Center for Turkish Studies