About

Rememberings: Human Rights, Historical Trauma and the Future of Pluralism in Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean

The project aims to support scholars and master students in Turkey in the fields of  history, human rights, minority issues and cultural heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean. It consists of a series of activities that aim to strengthen scholars’ international networks and to create exchange and collaborations with civil society actors active in the same fields.

During the two-year project a series of academic workshops, a podcast series, study trips and two summer schools will be carried out.

Context

The Swedish Institute (SI) launched a call for applications for projects that aim to support “change-oriented” academics in Turkey. Our project is positioned in the context of the tightening space for free academic thought, research, and teaching overall, and in particular in the shrinking spaces for free discourse on issues of historical justice, minority rights, and pluralism in the region.

The project also builds on the summer school Human Rights – A recurrent history that was held five times since 2013 at the SRII. Here, students were introduced to Ottoman and early Republican history as well as to the New history of Human Rights and engaged in debates about historical justice, cultural heritage and pluralist democracy. They also encountered and developed project ideas for organizations that actively work in this nexus. The aim of Rememberings is to further build on, expand and develop this endeavor by broadening the geographic scope and deepening the collaboration with Turkish academia and civil society.