Eastern Mediterranean pluralism in oral history and memory studies
A series of workshops devoted to theories and practices in academia and civil society in Turkey and beyond
Less than a hundred years ago, most Eastern Mediterranean cities were marked by a high degree of ethnic, linguistic and religious pluralism. Whereas the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of states based on modern concepts of nationhood heralded its end, some of the most important cities of the empire retained their cosmopolitan nature well until the Second World War and its aftermath. Oral histories and communicative memories of ethnoreligious groups that constituted vital parts of these cities are still living, often wound up with unhealed and suppressed traumas of displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide. At the same time, simplified and nostalgic visions of a pluralist past are sometimes held up as role models for present-day Eastern Mediterranean societies without questioning its implications and meaning, or without regard for the challenges that they entail. Local academics and civil society organizations alike play vital roles in researching, highlighting and supporting pluralism and pluralist heritage, sometimes in defiance of nationalist historiographies and policies, sometimes supported by states and institutions that embrace pluralism.
The following series of online panels, arranged by the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII), operates at a cross-section of academic research and civil society activism. It aims to bring together young scholars of history, minorities and human rights with representatives of academia and civil society in a number of Eastern Mediterranean cities outside of Turkey. The panels will discuss what cultural pluralism meant in the past and what it means today, survey how different Eastern Mediterranean countries have struggled to either sustain or suppress cultural pluralism and pluralist heritage, and debate what academics can learn from civil society organizations and human rights discourses when they deal with the questions it brings up.
January 28, 2021:
How can we talk about cultural pluralism in the Eastern Mediterranean?
Asena Günal, director of Anadolu Kültür – Bülent Bilmez, professor at Istanbul Bilgi University – Noémi Lévy-Aksu, Hafıza Merkezi
March 26, 2021:
The place of cultural pluralism in Thessaloniki
Cengiz Şişman, Professor of History, University of Houston-Clear Lake – Leon Saltiel Historian, University of Macedonia – Despina Syrri, Director of the Civic School of Political Studies
May 28, 2021:
The place of cultural pluralism in Aleppo
Uğur Ümit Üngör, University of Amsterdam – Seda Altuğ, University of Boğaziçi – Philip Mansel, Levantine Heritage Foundation – Isber Sabrine, Heritage For Peace
September 17, 2021: (postponed to 2022)
The place of cultural pluralism in Beirut
Craig Larkin, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics of the Middle East, King’s College London – Mona El Hallak Ghaibeh, Director of AUB Neighborhood Initiative, American Univerity of Beirut – Maria Abunnasr , AUB and Ras Beirut in One Hundred and Fifty Years of Photographs – Selim Deringil, Lebanese American University, Beirut
October 21, 2021:
The place of cultural pluralism in Alexandria
Will Hanley, Associate Professor, Department of History, Florida State University – Amro Ali, lecturer in political sociology at the American University in Cairo – Mohamed Gohar, architect, artist and researcher, founder of Description of Alexandria
March 11, 2022:
The place of cultural pluralism in Sarajevo
Dženeta Karabegović, Sociology and Human Geography, University of Salzburg – Bayram Şen, researcher at the Orijentalni Institut, Sarajevo University – Tatjana Milovanović, program director at the Post-Conflict Research Center
Söylenmemiş Hatıralar, Yazılmamış Tarihler
Sözlü Tarih ve Hatıra Çalışmalarında Doğu Akdeniz’de çoğulculuk
Türkiye ve yakınındaki akademi ve sivil toplumda kuram ve pratikler
Yakın geçmişte Doğu Akdeniz’deki birçok şehir çok kültürlülüğün yoğun olarak yaşandığı yerlerdi. Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun parçalanması ve çağdaş ulusal devletlerin belirmesine rağmen İmparatorluk geçmişinin en önemli şehirleri kozmopolit değerlerini İkinci Dünya Savaşının ertesine dek muhafaza edebildiler. Bu şehirlerde yaşamış, değişik etnik-dini topluluklara ait olan insanların birçoğu halen yaşıyor, bunlar tehcir ve kırımların bastırılmış travmalarını sözlü tarih ve hatıratları aracılığıyla aktarabiliyor. Ancak bu aktarım da bazen çok kültürlü geçmişin basite indirgenip nostaljik bir şekilde sorgulanmadan bugüne model olarak alınmasına neden olabiliyor. Bu coğrafyanın akademisyenleri ve sivil toplum kuruluşları çok kültürlülüğü öne çıkaran araştırmalar yaparak bu mirasa değer katıyor. Bunu bazen ulusalcı tarih yazımı ve siyasetine karşı, bazen de çoğulculuğu benimseyen kurum ve devletlerin desteğiyle yapabiliyorlar.
İstanbul’daki İsveç Araştırma Enstitüsü’nün (SRII) hazırladığı ve İngilizce düzenlenen bu dijital çalıştay serisi de tam olarak akademik araştırma ile sivil toplum aktivizminin çakıştığı noktaya ışık tutmayı hedefliyor. Tarih, Azınlık ve İnsan Hakları çalışan genç akademisyenler ile Türkiye ve Doğu Akdeniz’deki çok kültürlü mirasa sahip çıkan önde gelen sivil toplum çalışanlarını ve akademisyenlerini bir araya getiriyoruz.
Remembering and Coexisting in the Eastern Mediterranean 