Presentation of the Seminar

What is the historical experience of cities in the former territories of the Ottoman Empire - in the Balkans, Anatolia, the Middle East, and North Africa - in dealing with the impact of global changes and the transformation from Empire to nation States? How did people of different cultural, social and religious backgrounds live together? How are such examples of conviviality, conflict, migration, and urban regimes of governance and stratification conceptualized? And how have urban traditions been reinterpreted, and what bearing does this have on modern conceptions of civil society, multicultural societies, migration, or cosmopolitanism. These and other questions will be addressed in this year’s Seminar in Ottoman Urban Studies.

Ottoman Urban Studies Seminar
Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) Berlin

Thème 2009-2010: Post-Ottoman Cities.

November 9

Introduction: Between Ideologies and Modernities: Post-Ottoman Cities in Comparative Perspective by Ulrike Freitag (ZMO) and Nora Lafi (ZMO)

November 16

The City, the Valley, and the Nation: On a post-Ottoman 'Land Settlement' in Mandate Palestine, 1921-1948 by Munir Kamal Fakher Eldin (Majdal Shams; Fellow of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe 2009/10)

December 7

Tel Aviv as a Colonial Post-Ottoman City by Mark Levine (University of California,
Irvine / CMES Lund)

January 11

The Housing Question in Post-Ottoman Izmir and the Population Exchange with Greece, 1924-30 by Ellinor Morack (FU Berlin, Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and
Societies)

January 25

Changing Social Roles in Post-Ottoman Istanbul: A Gendered Approach by Nazan
Maksudyan (Istanbul Technical University; Fellow of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe 2009/10)

February 8

French City or Ottoman? The Patrimonial Debate in 19th and early 20th century Algiers by Nabila Oulebsir (Université de Poitiers)

April 19

Erasure and Distortion: The Ottoman Memory in Contemporary Beirut Art Production by Kirsten Scheid (American University in Beirut; Fellow of Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe 2009/10)

April 26

Ankara: the Republican Urban Project and the Ottoman Heritage by Kyle Evered (Michigan State University)

May 10

Colonial Algiers and the Ottoman Heritage: Planning, Architecture and Governance by Zeynep Celik (New-Jersey Institute of Technology)

May 31

Life After the Ottomans: Heritage and the New National Urban Narrative in Post-Ottoman Cities of the Balkans by Zeynep Aygen (University of Portsmouth)

June 14

Changing Identities in Post-Ottoman Salonica by Katherine Fleming (New-York University)

June 28

Intellectual Dimensions of Continuity and Transformation in post-Ottoman Istanbul by
Sait Ozervarli (Yildiz Technical University)

July 12

Conclusion: Ulrike Freitag (ZMO) and Nora Lafi (ZMO)


This seminar is supported with funds of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.
Twice a Month,
Mondays 17:00-19:00
Starting November 9, 2009

Venue:

Conference Hall
Zentrum Moderner Orient
Kirchweg 33
14129 Berlin-Nikolassee
Participants are asked to register at the following address:
Dr. Nora Lafi
nora.lafi@rz.hu-berlin.de
Telefon (+49) (0) 30 80307- 0

The seminar is part of the activities of the Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) and of the research program 'Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe' (EUME, research field 'Cities Compared: Cosmopolitanism in the Mediterranean and Adjacent Regions') of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, and the
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

For more information please visit:
http://www.zmo.de
http://www.eume.de
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~mediter