Culture, Power, and History in Modern Turkey

Brian Silverstein
Spring 2015
THURSDAYS |  
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jan. 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26, March 5, 12, 26, April 9, and April 16, 2015
Course Format: Hybrid
Location: Main Campus
Tuition: $195

Is Turkey in Europe or the Middle East? Is this a question of geography, history, politics, or culture? This course explores all those sides of Turkey since the late 19th-century empire, focusing on the republican era after 1923. Turkey is one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, a parliamentary democracy, a NATO member, and a candidate to join the European Union. The country is also not a postcolony–the Republic of Turkey emerged directly from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. The seminars will be presented by Dr. Silverstein, as well as other UA experts on Turkey. Each week centers on a theme, including nationalism, modernization, gender, religion and secularism, identity, minorities, the AK Party, political economy, the state, and the politics of history.

Required Reading

Hanioglu, Sükrü. Atatürk: An Intellectual Biography. Princeton University Press, 2013. ISBN-13: 978-0691157948.

Pamuk, Orhan. Snow. Trans. Maureen Freely. NY: Vintage, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0375706868.

Zürcher, Erik. Turkey: A Modern History, 3rd ed. London: IB Tauris, 2004. ISBN-13: 978-1860649585.

Meet Your Instructor

Associate Professor

BRIAN SILVERSTEIN is Associate Professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, where he heads the new Arizona Center for Turkish Studies. He is the author of Islam and Modernity in Turkey (2011) and many journal articles. His current research is on Turkey’s European Union integration reforms, particularly the politics of statistics.

Location

POETRY CENTER
Dorothy Rubel Room
1508 E Helen
Tucson, AZ 85721
United States

Located on the SE corner of Helen Street and Vine Avenue, one block north of Speedway and three blocks west of Campbell Ave.

Street map image of Poetry Center

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