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Turkish Studies
Literary Studies November 16, 2023

Writing Cyprus

Postcolonial and Partitioned Literatures of Place and Space

Bahriye Kemal

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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Bahriye Kemal's ground-breaking new work serves as the first study of the literatures of Cyprus from a postcolonial and partition perspective. Writing Cyprus: Postcolonial and Partitioned Literatures of Place and …

Turkish Studies

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Interviews with authors about new books in Turkish studies.

Islamic Studies October 20, 2023

The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe

Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia Herzegovina

Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
In her sparkling and splendid new book The Afterlife of Ottoman Europe: Muslims in Habsburg Bosnia Herzegovina (Stanford University Press, 2023), Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular presents a thorough and deeply layered account …
Middle Eastern Studies October 12, 2023

Laughing Matters

Graphic Satire Reckoning with the 1980 Coup in Turkey

Valentina Marcella

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
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Valentina Marcella's Laughing Matters: Graphic Satire Reckoning with the 1980 Coup in Turkey (Istituto per l’Oriente C. A. Nallino 2022) focuses on the production of political cartoons in Turkey in the context of …
Policing, Incarceration, and Reform October 10, 2023

The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics

Women Politicians Write from Prison

Gültan Kışanak

Hosted by Deniz Yonucu
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The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics: Women Politicians Write from Prison (Pluto Press, 2022) is a one-of-a-kind collection of prison writings from more than 20 Kurdish women politicians. Here they …
Anthropology October 5, 2023

Gendered Fortunes

Divination, Precarity, and Affect in Postsecular Turkey

Zeynep K. Korkman

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
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In Gendered Fortunes: Divination, Precarity, and Affect in Postsecular Turkey (Duke UP, 2023), Zeynep K. Korkman examines Turkey’s commercial fortunetelling cafés where secular Muslim women and LGBTIQ individuals navigate the precarities …
Middle Eastern Studies September 27, 2023

Placing Islam

Geographies of Connection in Twentieth-Century Istanbul

Timur Warner Hammond

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
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For centuries, the Mosque of Eyüp Sultan has been one of Istanbul’s most important pilgrimage destinations, in large part because of the figure buried in the tomb at its center …
Genocide Studies September 20, 2023

Remnants

Embodied Archives of the Armenian Genocide

Elyse Semerdjian

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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Foremost among the images of the Armenian Genocide is the specter of tattooed Islamized Armenian women. Blue tribal tattoos that covered face and body signified assimilation into Muslim Bedouin and …
Middle Eastern Studies September 17, 2023

A Sephardi Turkish Patriot

Gad Franco in the Turmoil of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic

Anthony Gad Bigio

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
In A Sephardi Turkish Patriot: Gad Franco in the Turmoil of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (Hamilton Books, 2023), Anthony Gad Bigio explores the life of Gad Franco (1881–1954), a prominent Sephardi journalist …
Middle Eastern Studies August 28, 2023

When Democracy Died

The Middle East's Enduring Peace of Lausanne

Hans-Lukas Kieser

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
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The Treaty of Lausanne, signed in Switzerland in July 1923, officially settled the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied forces. Not only did the Treaty establish the borders …
Genocide Studies August 15, 2023

Genocidal Conscription

Drafting Victims and Perpetrators Under the Guise of War

Christopher Harrison

Hosted by Kelly McFall
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Christopher Harrison's book Genocidal Conscription: Drafting Victims and Perpetrators Under the Guise of War (Lexington Books, 2023) examines how some states have employed mandatory military service as a tool to capture and …
British Studies August 13, 2023

A Commerce of Knowledge

Trade, Religion, and Scholarship Between England and the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1760

Simon Mills

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Simon Mills' book A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship Between England and the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1760 (Oxford UP, 2020) tells the story of three generations of Church of England …
Middle Eastern Studies August 4, 2023

Inventing Laziness

The Culture of Productivity in Late Ottoman Society

Melis Hafez

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
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Neither laziness nor its condemnation are new inventions, however, perceiving laziness as a social condition that afflicts a 'nation' is. In the early modern era, Ottoman political treatises did not …
Middle Eastern Studies July 23, 2023

Circumcision and Medicine in Modern Turkey

Oyman Başaran

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
In Turkey, circumcision is viewed as both a religious obligation and a rite of passage for young boys, as communities celebrate the ritual through gatherings, gifts, and special outfits. Yet …
Middle Eastern Studies July 22, 2023

Arabs in Turkish Political Cartoons, 1876-1950

National Self and Non-National Other

Ilkim Büke Okyar

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
The emergence of Turkish nationalism prior to World War I opened the way for various ethnic, religious, and cultural stereotypes to link the notion of the “Other” to the concept …
Middle Eastern Studies June 29, 2023

Peerless Among Princes

The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman

Kaya Sahin

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
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Süleyman, who ruled the Ottoman Empire between 1520 and 1566, was a globally recognized figure during his lifetime. In Peerless Among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman (Oxford University …
Nomads, Past and Present June 16, 2023

Bedouin Bureaucrats

Mobility and Property in the Ottoman Empire

Nora Barakat

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
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In the late 19th century, the Ottoman government sought to fill landscapes they legally defined as "empty." Both land and people were incorporated into territorially bounded grids of administrative law …
Middle Eastern Studies June 6, 2023

Bedouin Bureaucrats

Mobility and Property in the Ottoman Empire

Nora Barakat

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
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In the late nineteenth century, Ottoman statesmen sought to fill landscapes they legally defined as "empty." Both land and people were incorporated into territorially bounded grids of administrative law.  Nora …
Islamic Studies June 6, 2023

Nur Baba

A Sufi Novel of Late Ottoman Istanbul (Translated by Brett Wilson)

Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu

Hosted by SherAli Tareen
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This conversation is with Brett Wilson, who has composed the first English translation of the classic and controversial novel from late Ottoman Turkey Nur Baba--a classic of modern Turkish literature …
Anthropology May 19, 2023

Istanbul Appearances

Beauty and the Making of Middle-Class Femininities in Urban Turkey

Claudia Liebelt

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
In the past two decades, the consumption of beauty services and cosmetic surgery in Turkey has developed from an elite phenomenon to an increasingly common practice, especially among younger and …
Middle Eastern Studies May 5, 2023

Erdoğan's War

A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria

Gönül Tol

Hosted by Reuben Silverman
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's pugnacious president, is now the country's longest-serving leader. On his way to the top, he has fought many wars. This book tells the story of those …