Managing Byzantine Heritage in the Modern World: The Development of Byzantine Studies in Turkey

A KEMAL H. KARPAT CENTER FOR TURKISH STUDIES HYBRID LECTURE with Koray Durak, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Professor Durak will discuss how Byzantine studies in Turkey have developed from the late Ottoman era to today, focusing on the roles of state and non-state actors, as well as Turkish and foreign scholars. He will explain how political ideas such as Kemalism, nationalism, Westernism, and religious conservatism have influenced the study of Byzantium. He will also discuss how Byzantine heritage has been reinterpreted for different purposes over time, with attention to education, history writing, and archaeology, and places Turkey’s experience in comparison with Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Koray Durak is an Associate Professor of History and Vice-Director of the Byzantine Studies Research Center at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. His research focuses on Byzantine-Islamic economic relations, the commercial history of Constantinople, and Byzantine pharmacology. Co-sponsored by the Department of History, Middle East Studies Program, Center for European Studies, Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) and the Medieval Studies Program Free and open to the public