TURKISH CULTURE & SOCIETY

(Understanding Society GE & Sociology course credit)

BIG PICTURE

Students will engage with debates about modernization and what characterizes a modern society; whether or to what degree there is a universal modernity, and how different members and groups within Turkish society are contesting what it means to be Turkish and what it means to be modern. These themes are closely connected to debates about citizenship, national identity, the role of the state, and who can participate in the public square and on what basis.

Urbanization has been the helpmeet of modernization and so the course will take advantage of our location in Istanbul (and Cairo). Using the physical and human geography of Istanbul, students will engage with some of the key sticking points in modernization and modernization theories, as well as challenge their own assumptions about what it means to be modern and come to a greater understanding of how ideological battles are embodied and worked out in contests over public space -- whether that is what women wear or where immigrants live. Thus special attention will be given to the struggle over personal and public, and the use of spatial references (public/private, urban/rural, East/West, local/global) to control and persuade. Students will be encouraged to be more critical and self-reflective in how they use these terms. Istanbul is an ideal setting as a city that straddles and thus challenges these dichotomous categories in tangible ways.

Cautionary Note: this course is an introduction to further inquiry…

Much of the learning that occurs this semester will not become clear, if it does at all, till students return to America and have time to process and to follow-up on what they have learned while in the region.

Students may have the understandable expectation that during the semester they will gain an in-depth knowledge of the culture of Turkey and the Middle East. However noble this ambition, it is neither respectful nor realistic. While students will certainly learn and experience more than they ever expected, much more study and experience is necessary just to begin to appreciate, much less understand, the cultures of the region. In order that students not over/underestimate the potential for learning, students should:

  • Understand the complexity of the region and accept a certain ambiguity of knowledge—a willingness to accept, think about, and write with a sense of intellectual and spiritual ambiguity. For those wondering how spiritual truths can be deciphered in a context of ambiguity or uncertainty, remember St. Paul’s remarks: “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see Him face to face.” Until then, appreciate the ambiguity of life and learning.
  • Not oversimplify Turkish and Middle East realities by imposing a contrived order, organization, conceptual framework, or religious bias to the data. Instead, attention should be given to appreciating the nuanced nature of personal and social realities across the region. As with any country or region, no simple answer existsto any serious question regarding Turkey or the Middle East. Any conclusions about the status of women in the Middle East, for example, will depend on any number of factors not easily reducible to a simple formula. Instead, students are expected to think in terms of how women interact, behave, and think within different contexts—economic, social, political, religious, geographical, etc.
  • Accept that experience is a necessary yet insufficient guide, since both subjective understanding and numerous differences both between and within cases properly preclude simplistic, neatly packaged conclusions about any particular issue area. For example, don't make the mistake of assuming that you understand Turkish culture because you strike up a friendship or take tea with a Turkish [individual or family], even though you are in fact learning something about the culture by doing so.
  • Think about how the complex patterns referred to above relate to your own faith tradition intellectually, practically, and spiritually. For example, how does any cultural artifact—political, social, economic—impact the way that Christians believe and worship and view others?
  • Consider the idea of culture with a small “c”—While many cultural preferences may be praiseworthy and deserve respect and preservation, many others are just preferences based on personal or group interest. For example, imposing cultural change on other people groups is usually wrong, but cultural change at some level is the norm for most peoples.
  • Pay special note to issues related to the Arab-Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Students should note the many ways that the conflict colors political opinion and policy in other countries.
  • More to come on living and travel etiquette.

COURSE GOALS: UNDERSTANDING SOCIETY

1. Articulate dimensions of individual, group and institutional dynamics in society, paying attention to issues of diversity and media where applicable

  • Students will be encouraged to see how different groups within society – youth, women, Kurds, Armenians, immigrants, etc. – perceive themselves and their place within society
  • Students will be expected to consider the benefit of categories like Turk or immigrant as they grapple with individual stories.
  • Students will study policies and propaganda generated by the state in an effort to define Turkishness, how these affect minority groups and how those groups have sought through personal choice and collective action to adapt.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

  1. Students will be able to collaborate on a group project
  2. Students will be able to debate complex issues in a civil and compelling way
  3. Students will be able to evaluate the use of social categories such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and class in different cultural contexts.

PERFORMANCE

Participation – 20%

This involves all class time with the directors and guest speakers. You will be graded based on quality of questions asked and general level of engagement with the issues. You should be striving to make connections between speakers, topics and countries.

This also includes the respect you show your peers and instructors by coming on time and prepared for all talks, activities, travel, etc.

Quizzes – 15%

Exam (week 11) – 20%

Comparative Egypt/Turkey Essay (week 14) – 15%

6-10 page Essay on Debate topic (week 16) – 15%

Debate Presentation (week 16) – 15%

You will each participate in a one hour presented debate based on a question from this course or one of the other program courses. The members of your group must divide into two groups with one answering the question in the affirmative and the other in the negative. Your papers need to support the position you take in your presentation. It is good to develop the skill of getting inside and arguing for positions that may not be your own. You may express interest in a particular topic or side in a topic, but the final decision and appointment of topics and positions belongs to the instructor.

Your debate will follow the Oxbridge style of debating. 20 minutes per side (broken down into individual arguments and counter arguments) and 20 minutes for question and answer. After a break we will then discuss as a group the merits of the cases made and alternative proposals. (If you want to know what I am aiming for here listen to “intelligence squared” on NPR – “Oxford style debating on America’s shore.”)

SCHEDULE

This schedule was developed in collaboration with social science professors from Yeditepe Univesity.

Week ONE & TWO:

Orientation & Intensive Turkish

Introductory thematic talks by Mustafa Akyol and Barcin Yinanc

  • Mustafa Akyol, “Turkey’s liberal Islam and how it came to be,” an updated version of Mustafa Akyol, “Turkey’s Veiled Democracy” The American Interest, Nov-Dec 2007
  • Mustafa Akyol “Welcome to Islamic Reformation 101,” Turkish Daily NewsMarch 1, 2008.

Week THREE & FOUR

Travel through southwest of Turkey.

Week FIVE:

Introduction to sociology in Turkey

Speaker: Prof.Dr. Faruk BİRTEK, Boğaziçi University (not confirmed)

An introductory seminar in which students get a short overview about:

•the history of sociology in Turkey

•Sociology departments in Turkey

•Issues discussed in Turkish sociology

Readings TBA

Modernization Debate in Turkey: From Tanzimat to the Republic

Speaker: Assist.Prof. Demet LÜKÜSLÜ, Yeditepe University

  • Introduction to the work of prominent Turkish sociologists, with particular reference to works of Serif Mardin
  • The center and periphery
  • Turkish Modernization

Readings TBA

Week SIX:

Youth as a keyword for understanding political culture in Turkey, 19th century to the present

Speaker: Assist.Prof. Demet LÜKÜSLÜ, Yeditepe University

Readings TBA

Citizenship and Nationalism Debate in Turkey

Speaker: Assist.Prof. Demet LÜKÜSLÜ, Yeditepe University

•Anna Secor, “`There is an Istanbul that Belongs to me’: Citizenship, Space and Identity in the City,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94:2 (2004): 352-368.

•Thomas W. Smith, “Civic Nationalism and Ethnocultural Justice in Turkey,” Human Rights Quarterly 27 (2005): 436-470.

•Ayse Kadioğlu, “the Paradox of Turkish Nationalism and the Construction of Official Identity,” Middle Eastern Studies (1996)

•Sami Zubaida, “Turkish Islam and National Identity,” MERIP 199 (1996): 10-15.

Week SEVEN:

From rural to urban: Transformation of the city

Speaker: Ayfer Bartu CANDAN, Boğaziçi University (not confirmed)

  • Anna Secor, “The Veil and Urban Space in Istanbul: Women’s dress, mobility and Islamic knowledge,” Gender, Place & Culture 9:1 (2002): 5-22
  • Tahire Erman, “Becoming ‘urban’ or remaining ‘rural’: The views of Turkish rural-to-urban migrants on the ‘integration question,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 30 (1998): 541-561

Migration and Transnationalism

Speaker: Assist. Prof. Ayşe AKALIN, Istanbul Technical University

  • Ayşe Buğra, “Poverty and Citizenship: An Overview of Social Policy Environment in Republican Turkey,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 39/1 (2007), 33-57.
  • E. Fuat Keyman and Ziya Öniş “Social Justice, Inequality and Poverty,” in Turkish Politics in a Changing World (Istanbul: Bilgi University, 2007), 241-66.
  • Sencer Ayata, “Poverty, Social Policy and Modernity in Modern Turkey,” C. Kerslake et al. (eds.) Turkey’s Engagement with Modernity: Conflict and Change in the Twentieth Century (Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 190-209.

Week EIGHT: Gender in Turkey

Speaker: Assist. Prof. Ayşe AKALIN, Istanbul Technical University

  • Yeşim Arat, “Contestation and collaboration: women’s struggles for empowerment in Turkey,” The Cambridge History of Turkey, vol. 4. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 388-418.
  • Deniz A. Kandiyoti and Deniz Kandiyoti, “Emancipated but Unliberated? Reflections on the Turkish Case,” Feminist Studies 13:2 (1987): 317-338
  • Banu Gokariksel and Anna Secor, “Between Fashion and Tesettur: Marketing and Consuming Women’s Islamic Dress,” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 6:3 (2010): 118-148.
  • Nilfer Gole, The Forbidden Modern, chpt 1. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1996.
  • Jenny B. White, “State Feminism, Modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman,” NWSA Journal15:3 (2003): 145-159
  • Sam Kaplan, “Nuriye’s Dilemma: Turkish Lessons of Democracy and the Gendered State,” American Ethnologist 30:3 (2003): 401-417

Week NINE:

Religious & Ethnic Minorities

  • “Modernity and the Alevis of Turkey: Identity, Challenges and Change,” Michael Stewart Journal of International Relations, volume 9, Spring 2007
  • “Prayer and Politics, but no Orgy,” Pelin Turgut and Nathan Thornburgh TIME 5/5/08
  • TBA

Week TEN:

Civil Society

Speaker: Istanbul Bilgi University Civil Society Research Center

Students will learn about:

•the emergence of civil society as a keyword especially after the 1980s in Turkey

•an overview of civil society literature in Turkey

•the differences between NGOs of service and advocacy

•visit an NGO, e.g. Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı.

•Ergun Özbudun, “Civil Society and Democratic Consolidation in Turkey,” in Özdalga and Perssons (ed.) Civil Society, Democracy and Muslim World, (Istanbul: History Foundation, 1999).

•Emre Toros “Understanding the Role of Civil Society as an Agent for Democratic Consolidation: The Turkish Case,” Turkish Studies, 8/3 (2007), 395-415.

Transformation of the Public Sphere: Reconstruction of Public Memory in Turkey

Speaker: Assist.Prof. Aybil GÖKER, Yeditepe University

Readings: TBA

Week ELEVEN

Review & Exams

Week TWELVE

Retreat at Bugday & farewell to Turkey

Week THIRTEEN & FOURTEEN: EGYPT

Opportunity for comparisons with Turkey particularly in terms of citizenship, the public sphere, civil society, and women’s rights.

•Valerie Hoffman-Ladd, “Polemics on the Modesty & Segregation of Women in Contemporary Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 19:1 (1987): 23-50.

•Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the FeministSubject, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005), 40-57.

•Ninette Fahmy, “A Culture of Poverty or the Poverty of Culture? Informal Settlements and the Debate over State-Society Relationship in Egypt,” Middle East Journal 58:4 (2004): 597-61.

•Additional readings TBA

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