MEMORY, SPACE AND IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY TURKEY

Course Objectives: The course aims to introduce students to the debates over memory, space, and identity. Each module is designed around a specific concept and theme that is introduced through multiple case studies involving different groups, periods, and geographies in contemporary Turkey. Each module poses the same set of questions: How does individuals and groups’ relation to the past shape their identities, claims and discourses? How are sites of memory involved in the making and remaking of these identities, as well as their claims to rights and justice? In whichh ways are different constructions of the past is contested, negotiated, and reconciled? What is the scope for the exercise of individual and collective agency in shaping the present? The course aims to encourage students to critically engage with the history of modern Turkey, to acknowledge different perspectives on the past, and to develop their own voice in shaping the present.

Course Content: Memory has been central to the question of identity and difference in contemporary Turkey. Individuals, groups, and communities remember events, periods, figures, and places differently, negotiate how we remember the past, and reshape the present. The course questions different ways in which memory shapes social, cultural, and political issues pertaining to national, religious, ethnic, class, gender, and sexual identities, with a specific focus on sites of memory. We will explore controversies over memory, space, and identity through an analysis of monuments, memorials, museums, heritage sites, objects, and symbols. In doing so, we will discuss how state, social movements, citizen initiatives, local communities, and minorities shape, reshape and transform their identities and put forth their claims to rights and justice. The course aims to develop an analytical and critical perspective on the current debates over national identity and belonging in contemporary Turkey.