Our Research Programs

The Politics of Memory in Global Context is a Franco-American collaborative project that brings together scholars in the social sciences and humanities who work on collective or public memory; cognitive scientists, psychologists, and neuroscientists who work on individual memory; and curators of historical and memorial museums who present the past to the public. The project combines diverse disciplinary approaches and insists on considering its topics comparatively in global context in order to discern commonalities among them, develop new analytic perspectives on the formation and operation of public memory, and suggest policies for better political management of divisive memories within and between countries. The workshops aim to create an interdisciplinary context for researchers of memory, while public lectures bring the wider community into the discussion as described in the project website: http://cgt.columbia.edu/research/memory/.

On April 16-17, 2015, together with Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History and Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia, the Istanbul and Amman Centers designed a series of inter-linked workshops in both cities under the heading of “Time and Trauma: Transgenerational Memories of Mass Suffering,” which featured an interdisciplinary group of scholars and artists from Asia, Turkey and the Middle East. Taking place at Boğaziçi University campus in Istanbul and at Studio-X Istanbul, the panel and workshop brought together scholars in the social sciences and humanities, neuroscientists and psychologists, and curators of historical and memorial museums to explore the relation between individual and collective remembering and the politics of national and transnational memory in the world today.

As a priority area for Columbia University, journalism, press freedom and freedom of expression have been the focus of several programs at the Istanbul Center. Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul and the Columbia Global Centers | Amman co-convened the “Workshop on Geopolitical Developments and Press Freedoms in the Middle East and Turkey” in September 2013, which featured President Lee C. Bollinger, Professor Safwan M. Masri, Dean Steve Coll, former Dean Nicholas Lemann of the Columbia Journalism School and several distinguished global and regional experts on Turkey and the Middle East. In 2014, the Istanbul Center organized a training program for 24 students of media and journalism from the region and the United States on the theme of freedom of expression, with lectures given by Professor Anya Schiffrin, Director of the International Media, Advocacy and Communications specialization at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, and by experts from Pro-Publica.

The Center also works together with Professor Susan E. McGregor, Assistant Professor at Columbia Journalism School and Assistant Director of the Tow Center for Digital Media, on a project supported by the President’s Global Innovation Fund which entails conducting research on experiences of working journalists in Turkey as well as holding a series of workshops and trainings for journalists and citizen media practitioners that will take place in 2016.

The Istanbul Research and Documentation Project was conceptualized and founded by Professor Holger A. Klein, Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University in November 2011 as a collaborative research initiative. The goal of the project is to create a digital platform for the virtual presentation of Istanbul’s Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and early Republican sites and monuments. As part of the project, Professor Klein has been teaching a summer course at Boğaziçi University since 2013. The Istanbul Research Institute and the Archaeological Museum are key partners in this endeavor. This project is supported by the President’s Global Innovation Fund.

Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments, a project led by Zainab Bahrani, Edith Porada Professor of Art History and Archaeology at the Department of Art History and Archaeology in the College of Arts and Science was awarded a President’s Global Innovation Fund grant in 2013.

Along with conducting fieldwork in Turkey, Professor Bahrani regular engages with specialist communities and the wider public to raise awareness about the importance of safeguarding the region’s cultural heritage. On June 4, 2015 she spoke at Artuklu University in Mardin on “The Discourse of Artifacts and Things” together with Professor Marc van de Mieroop of Columbia’s Department of History. On June 9, 2015, the Istanbul Center partnered with the Association to Protect Cultural Heritage in hosting a lecture by Professor Bahrani on “Mapping the Cultural Heritage in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.”

In October 2015, the Istanbul Center partnered with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations to support Professor Bahrani’s efforts to convene leading specialists from Turkey, Syria and Iraq for a workshop on “The Future of the Past: Addressing the Cultural Heritage Crisis in Iraq and Syria.” The workshop began with a keynote lecture given by Professor Zainab Bahrani at Studio-X Istanbul on, “The Absent Past: Heritage Destruction and Historical Erasure Today,” during which she discussed the current destruction of heritage in Iraq and Syria.

Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul and the Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul hosted the “Blue Voyagers: The Art of Romare Bearden and Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu” exhibition from April 15 to May 17, 2015. This exhibition was co-curated by Robert O’Meally, Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Merve İspahani, Doctoral Candidate in History at Columbia University and Research Associate at the Istanbul Center, and represented the final leg of a global voyage of the works of African American artist Romare Bearden’s iconic series of works based on Homer’s “The Odyssey.” The exhibit was part of a year-long series of programs, lectures and performances inspired by Bearden’s interpretation of Homer’s classic, a staple of Columbia’s undergraduate Core Curriculum.

Along with works from Romare Bearden’s “A Black Oddyssey,” the exhibition in Istanbul featured works by the Turkish modernist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, who, like Bearden was instrumental in blending modern Western aesthetics with Anatolian themes. Focusing on journey as a central theme in their works, both Bearden and Eyüboğlu envisioned a “global odyssey” as a search for a new home that used the legacies of the ancient Greek civilization as a common point of reference.

Held in conjunction with the exhibition “Blue Voyagers,” a panel discussion on “Inviting the Other in - Translation Adaptation and Improvisation” explored connections between the two featured modern artists, Romare Bearden (American) and Bedri Rahmi Eyuboğlu (Turkish) and the issues of translation their work raises.

The exhibition concluded with a concert featuring Standard à la Turc, using different Turkish traditions, old and new – folk songs, art songs, pop and rock – reinterpreted and updated with a jazz approach, while respecting the place and meaning of each piece.

Leaders from cultural institutions, curators, practitioners and scholars explored factors influencing the arts and culture field in Istanbul, covering cultural policies, dynamics around public and private engagement in the arts, new forms of participation and issues around impact measurement in a “Global Think-In: Arts and Culture in Istanbul” led by Vishakha Desai, Senior Advisor for Global Affairs; Senior Research Scholar in Global Studies and Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs. After New York, Mumbai, and Rio, Istanbul is the fourth city to host the program, supported by the Ford Foundation and the Committee on Global Thought.

“De-Provincializing Soft Power: A Global-Historical Approach” is a three-year research project designed to study the power of cultural persuasion in foreign relations in ways that look beyond the Transatlantic and Western framework in which studies of “soft power” originated in the early 1990s. Led by Victoria De Grazia, Moore Collegiate Professor of History at Columbia, the project introduces the cases of three emerging powers, Brazil, China, and Turkey that have developed soft-power agendas in rivalry with the U.S., Europe, and with each other.

Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul, in collaboration with the European Institute at Columbia University, organized an interdisciplinary academic workshop titled “De-Provincializing Soft Power: Perspectives from Turkey” on June 11-12, 2015. The workshop brought together scholars and graduate students who examined Turkey’s use of cultural persuasion in its recent history of international relations. This project is supported by the President’s Global Innovation Fund.

Sustainable development has been a priority for the Istanbul Center, through a collaboration which began in 2013 with Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012 to mobilize global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical problem solving for sustainable development, including the design and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Istanbul Center helped to coordinate efforts to set up the Turkey chapter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which brings together universities, the private sector, civil society and government to advance the sustainable development agenda in Turkey. The university-led network is hosted by Boğaziçi University and was launched with a conference in June 2014.

The Center’s efforts have been focused on the topic of sustainable urbanization, a core challenge that confronts Istanbul as well as cities across the country and the wider region. Through a number of roundtables hosted by the Center, global and local experts on urbanization have been coming together to reflect on challenges and opportunities to further sustainability at the city level, particularly in light of the new global framework put forward by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which were adopted in September 2015.

In February 2015, the Istanbul Center hosted Aromar Revi, the Co-Chair of the UNSDSN Leadership Council and its Thematic Group on Sustainable Cities, and the Director of the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He met Mayor Kadir Topbaş of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and visited the municipality of Sarıyer District, meeting with Mayor Şükrü Genç and other local government representatives. The Istanbul Center also held a roundtable discussion led by Aromar Revi on “Sustainable Cities: Inclusive, Resilient, and Connected | The Role of Sustainable Cities as Drivers of Global Transformation,” which gathered 35 experts on urban issues, including leading scholars, municipal officials, architects and urban activists. He also gave public lecture on, “Can urban geographies create new histories?”

In November 2015, Aromar Revi returned to Istanbul, and met with urban experts at the Istanbul Center for another roundtable discussion on, “Prospects for Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals: The Urban SDG and Implications for Istanbul.” Boğaziçi University held a high-level conference with the SDSN20, examining the relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals for industrialized countries ahead of the G20 meetings in Turkey.

Stephen Karam, Lead Urban Economist and Sustainable Development Group Program Leader at the World Bank, presented the “Turkey Urbanization Review” at a roundtable organized by the Center in November 2015.

Programs with the Mailman School of Public Health were initiated following an extensive visit of Dean Linda Fried and several public health scholars from Mailman in October 2013. Through this visit, a President’s Global Innovation Fund project on “Confronting Non-Communicable Diseases in the Middle East and Turkey,” was developed by Professor Wafaa El-Sadr, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine, Dr. Mathilde Krim-amfAR Chair of Global Health, and Director of ICAP, and Professor Miriam Rabkin, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of Health Strategies at ICAP. The primary purpose of the project is to establish a priority research agenda on non-communicable diseases and to foster research partnerships and academic collaborations. One of the first activities of the project was a conference held at the Amman Center in January 2014, featuring leading specialists from the region, including the Director of the Istanbul Public Health Directorate and the Dean of the Koç University Medical School.

In order to deepen the collaboration between the Mailman School of Public Health and counterparts in the region, public health specialists from Turkey were invited to attend the Epidemiology and Population Health Summer Institute in New York. In 2014, one representative from the Istanbul Public Health Directorate and one from Koç University attended. In June 2015, one representative from the Istanbul Public Health Directorate and two scholars from Marmara University’s Department of Public Health participated in the program. While they were in New York, they also spoke at an ICAP Seminar on “Changing Health Needs in the Middle East and Turkey,” sharing their valuable on-the-ground insights with an audience of 30 experts from the field.

In 2015, the Istanbul Center launched its second collaboration with the Mailman School of Public Health through the “Responding to Changing Health Needs in Complex Emergencies: A Policy Imperative” project, which is supported with a grant made possible by Columbia University’s Global Policy Initiative.

This three-year project focuses on the issue of Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon, aiming to influence policy by providing a compelling, evidence-based argument that current frameworks for refugee health are not optimally configured for twenty-first century needs, and that there is an opportunity to enhance health services for displaced persons worldwide. The project has mobilized a team of researchers in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and the United States to undertake a situational analysis to identify key policy gaps and opportunities. The American University of Beirut and the Istanbul and Amman Centers are partners in this effort, which is led by Professor Wafaa El-Sadr, Professor Miriam Rabkin and Professor Neil Boothby, Allan Rosenfield Professor of Forced Migration and Health, Department of Population and Family Health.

To lay the foundations for the project, Professors Wafaa El-Sadr, Miriam Rabkin and Lynn Freedman, Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center, visited Turkey in March 2015 for a series of meetings with public health officials, scholars and international agencies. While they were in Istanbul, they spoke at a public panel organized by the Istanbul Center on the topic of “Prioritizing Women: Adapting Refugee Health Services for 21st Century Challenges.” Istanbul University scholars Zeynep Kıvılcım and Nurcan Özgür Baklacıoğlu presented findings from fieldwork recently conducted in Istanbul with Syrian women and LGBT refugees as well as an assessment of the legal framework in Turkey, which sets the basis for the protection of refugees and their ability to fully access their rights. In their presentations, Lynn Freedman, Wafaa El-Sadr, and Miriam Rabkin offered insights on questions of public health and the right to health for refugee populations, with a focus on women.

The second major activity involved a large-scale two-day event titled, “Responding to Changing Health Needs in Complex Emergencies: Workshop on Refugee Health,” held in Istanbul in October 2015, during which 80 specialists on refugee health from Turkey and the region were brought together to share their expertise, discuss recent policy approaches and identify the key challenges faced by the recent influx of refugee populations. Professors Wafaa El-Sadr, Miriam Rabkin, Neil Boothby and Lindsay Stark, Associate Professor in Columbia University’s Program on Forced Migration and Health participated in the workshop, giving presentations on their areas of expertise in conjunction with presentations made by public health officials, international agenices as well as several leading scholars. Following the workshop, Professors Wafaa El Sadr, Neil Boothby and Miriam Rabkin, together with the program team of the Istanbul Center, held meetings in Ankara with representatives of the Ministry of Health, United Nations agencies and the Directorate General of Migration Management.

The Women Mobilizing Memory working group continued its activities in 2015. In March 2015, graduate student members of Women Mobilizing Memory held a University Seminar that initiated the group’s Collaborative Keyword Project, inspired by discussions of gendered memory and the political efficacy of various forms of art and activism in recent Turkish and broader transnational contexts. The exhibition first displayed in Istanbul was then adapted and shown as “Mobilizing Memory” at the Kunsthalle Exnergasse / Wuk in Vienna, Austria in March 2015.

The final workshop, “Collaboration and Co-Resistance,” was held at Columbia University in September 2015. Working group members met at Columbia and New York University to discuss work in progress; it visited memory sites in Harlem and lower Manhattan; and sponsored a number of public events. Public happenings included an exhibition at Leroy Neiman Gallery on “Intimate Archives: Connective Histories,” artists’ performances and a roundtable discussion; a Wishing Tree commemorative public art ritual; and a one-day conference featuring various roundtable discussions on performance, art, and activism. Working group members are now in the process of completing the academic publication reflecting the outcome of this three-year scholarly collaboration.