"The Making of Byzantium in Contemporary Turkey" w/ K. Durak, Buffett Institute

Join the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program for "From 'Byzantine Intrigues' to Civil Byzantium: The Making of Byzantium in Contemporary Turkey" with Koray Durak, Boğaziçi University, on Monday, April 20 at 12:30pm in Kresge Hall, Room 1515.

“Byzantium” is imagined, circulated, and contested in contemporary Turkey through the interaction of state-managed memory politics, popular culture, and civil and academic initiatives. Approaching Byzantium as a cultural object—whose meanings are constantly produced and reproduced in public discourse, from school textbooks and political rhetoric to museums, exhibitions, the cultural industries (film and television), and digital media—reveals a field of diverse and often competing representations. These representations are shaped by unequal access to cultural authority, shifting ideological agendas, and logics of the media through which Byzantium is represented, in a country that is heir to Constantinople/Istanbul, the former imperial capital.

Combining discourse analysis with an institutional history of Byzantine studies in Turkey, and using the state/civil society divide as a heuristic tool, I argue that modern state ideology has alternately constrained, instrumentalized, or ignoredByzantium, while more plural academic and civic environments have enabled alternative interpretations and new communities of interest to emerge. In this sense, the perception of Byzantium in modern Turkey is not merely a matter of historical knowledge; it is also a mirror of Turkey’s own political and social transformations.

This event is hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. We from the Geopolitical Forum can find each other and hang out after the program wraps up.

Please register for free at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-byzantine-intrigues-to-civil-byzantium-with-koray-durak-tickets-1984502343932?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl. Act sooner rather than later, while there are still seats left.

Please also RSVP here to help us find one another at the event.