RESEARCH

My major areas of interest lie in transnational histories of the modern Middle East, especially focusing on the histories of the relations between Jews, Christians, and Muslims, war, diplomatic history, displacement, nation state formation, the relations between the west and non-west, and history of political violence. My research is embedded in three theoretical frameworks: feminism, humanism, and environmentalism. 

I am currently working on my book manuscript from my dissertation – Composing Turkey: German-speaking émigrés and the Building of a Modern Nation (1890 –  1972) – which sheds light on the exchange of ideas and transnational encounters between Germany and Turkey. My work focuses on the presence and participation of Germans in Turkish cultural, political, and social life in the geopolitical context of Turkish-German relations in the 1930s.

I have also been working on a manuscript regarding the history of political insurgency among the Alevi population in Turkey. This is part of a broader project on the relationship between sectarianism and political insurgency/violence in the Middle East.

Composing Turkey: German-speaking émigrés and the Building of a Modern Nation (1890 –  1972)

Fleeing persecution by the Nazis, hundreds of German Jewish professionals found a safe haven in Turkey after Hitler's coming to power. Ironically, the refugees, who lost their German citizenship due to their "racial" background, proved of great use to the young Turkish Republic in its nation-building project, precisely because of their "German" heritage and expertise. Some emigres were appointed leaders of state directed cultural institutions, some institutions, such as the "State Theatre Conservatory" were actually founded under their guidance or leadership.

Emigres from Germany were instrumental in the cultural transformation pursued by the Kemalists. Their arrival represents the culmination of the Kemalist elites' infatuation with the European enlightenment tradition.  

The émigré scholars profoundly influenced Turkish society, culture, and institutions for two reasons. First, in the 1930s, only a few institutions of higher education existed in Turkey, and the country lacked the necessary expertise to establish such institutions and train professionals. State administrators, especially those at the top of the hierarchy, including Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself, were well aware of the country’s needs in higher education, the arts, and culture. Second, the émigrés arrived at a critical time. Kemal Atatürk and his cadre started implementing cultural reforms in the late 1920s, so modernization in higher education had just begun. In 1928, the young republic renamed the Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi, (the School of Fine Arts in Arabic) the major art institute, Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi (the School of Fine Arts in Turkish). The transformation of Dar-ül-fünun (University in Arabic) into Istanbul Universitesi (Istanbul University in Turkish) followed the restructuring of the School of Fine Arts in Istanbul. A majority of professors at Dar-ül-fünun were dismissed from their jobs, replaced by German émigré scholars and intellectuals. Large cities in Turkey were the scene of this cultural transformation, especially Ankara, the newly established capital of the young republic.

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