Building the Turkish Republic

The Early Decades

October 27, 2023 – October 28, 2023
This event is in-person only and it is open to the public. Registration is required for both Columbia and non-Columbia guests.

Buell Hall, Columbia University, Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies 475 Riverside Dr Ste 308 New York, NY 10115-0002

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Conference Program

Panel 1 - Institutions Oct 27, 10:00AM - 12:00PM

Benjamin Fortna, University of Arizona

“Education from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic: Continuity and Change in an Iconic Endeavor”

Ali Cengizkan, METU and Bilkent University

“Legacy of the Early Planning Decisions on the Making of the Republican Capital: Ankara 1920-1960”

Feza Günergun, Istanbul University

“The Aurora of Scientific Research in Republican Turkey: Institutions and Actors”

Discussant: Nükhet Varlık, Rutgers University

Panel 2 - Peoples Oct 27, 1:45PM - 3:45PM Ari Şekeryan, Independent Scholar “Between ‘Armistice Complex’ and Promises of Civic Nationalism: Armenians in Early Republican Turkey”

Ayşe Ozil, Sabancı University “Agency and Society in a Minority Regime: Greeks in Early Republican Istanbul”

Louis Fishman, Brooklyn College, CUNY “From Ottoman Jews to Turkish Ones: The Making of a [Disappearing] Religious Minority During the First Decades of the Turkish Republic”

Discussant: Mark Mazower, Columbia University

Panel 3 - Religion Oct 27, 4:00PM - 6:00PM Amit Bein, Clemson University “Turkey, Islam, and the Middle East in the Interwar Period”

Sevgi Adak, Aga Khan University “Women, Kemalism, and the State: Revisiting Early Republican Gender Policies and Their Implications”

Markus Dressler, Leipzig University “Nationalist Knowledge Production and Policies on the Alevis in the Kemalist Era”

Discussant: Joseph Massad, Columbia University

Panel 4 - Foundations Oct 28, 10:00AM - 12:00PM Ayşe Buğra, Boğaziçi University “Social Policy and the Early Republican Perspectives on Development”

Reşat Kasaba, University of Washington “The Masters of the Nation: The Early Republican State and Turkey’s Peasants”

Levent Köker, Gazi University “Revolutionary Antinomies: Constitutional Change and Legal Reform in Early Republican Turkey”

Discussant: Benjamin Fortna, University of Arizona

Panel 5 - Arts Oct 28, 1:45PM - 3:45PM Esra Dicle, Boğaziçi University “Theater in People’s Houses and the Construction of the Modern Nation-State”

Nergis Ertürk, Pennsylvania State University “Literary Entanglements Across Turkey and the Soviet Union”

Savaş Arslan, Dokuz Eylül University “Early Cinema in Turkey”

Discussant: Sibel Erol, New York University

Panel 6 - Opposition Oct 28, 4:00PM - 6:00PM Christine Philliou, University of California, Berkeley “Muhalefet and the Transposition of Political Opposition, 1918-1928”

James Ryan, Foreign Policy Research Institute “Vectors of Dissent: Gender, Race, and Class Politics Underneath Kemalist Authoritarianism”

İlker Aytürk, Bilkent University “Turkish Opposition in Early Republican Turkey: The Rise and Fall of the Center-Periphery Thesis”

Discussant: Ayşe Kadıoğlu, Sabancı University