- MPI MMG
Herman-Föge-Weg 11
37073 Göttingen
Germany - +49 551 4956-159 (office)
Jeremy F Walton
University of Rijeka, Cultural studies, Faculty Member
- Space and Place, Memory Studies, Architecture and Public Spaces, Urban Geography, Islam, Walter Benjamin, and 47 moreSecularism, Urban Studies, Religion, Globalization, Creative City, Modern Turkey, Mass media, Culture, Islam in Turkey, Cultural Industry, Istanbul, Counterinsurgency, Anthropology, Critical Theory, Islamic Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Liberalism, Turkish politics, Public Sphere, Ottoman Balkans, Western Balkans, Habsburg Studies, Ottoman Studies, Post-Socialism, Former Yugoslavia, European Union, European Studies, Eastern European Studies, Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, Urban History, Croatia, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, THESSALONIKI, Trieste, Architecture, Affect (Cultural Theory), Empire, Ottoman History, Ottoman Empire, Imperialism, Postcolonial Studies, Postmodernism, and Nationalismedit
- What are the configurations, textures, ambivalences, and horizons of the past within the present? This expansive prov... moreWhat are the configurations, textures, ambivalences, and horizons of the past within the present? This expansive provocation, shared by so much of social theory, philosophy, and literature, has animated my own personal and professional itineraries for many years. Most recently, Recently, I channeled this fascination with the past in the present into a project at at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen. My Max Planck Research Group, "Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities," explores post-imperial memories and their discontents in the cities of Vienna, Istanbul, Budapest, Sarajevo, Trieste, Thessaloniki, Zagreb, and Belgrade. With inspiration from the works of Walter Benjamin in particular, our group explores how post-imperial discourses, quotidian practices, and built environments do, and do not, function as repositories for nostalgia and political projects in the present.
In certain ways, my ring-leadership (the metaphor of the circus is apt) of "Empires of Memory" is a departure from my earlier research. My doctoral studies plumbed public contestations of Muslim identity and practice in contemporary Turkey, with a focus on both Sunni and Alevi civil society organizations (vakiflar and dernekler). I finally put a capstone on this research in 2017, with the publication of my monograph Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey. Simultaneously, the rapidly shifting political terrain in Turkey made my scholarship far more politically controversial than I had ever imagined it to be, and attenuated my capacity to conduct research in Turkey. Yet the themes that captivated me throughout my fieldwork--in particular, the restorative nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire that increasingly reshapes lives and landscapes in Turkey--directly inspired my more panoramic perspective on the legacies, memories, and erasures of both the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires throughout central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, and beyond.
I have been fortunate to benefit from the incisive insights, brilliance, encouragement, and support from colleagues and friends at a variety of institutions, including the University of Chicago Anthropology Department, the NYU Religious Studies Program, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, the CETREN research network at the University of Göttingen, the Center for Advanced Studies of Southeast Europe at the University of Rijeka, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. My passions, projects, and fascinations are itinerant, myriad, and uncertain in their duration; in this, above all, I have been, and continue to be, immensely lucky.edit - William Mazzarellaedit
The sway of Islam in political life is an unavoidable topic of debate in Turkey today. Secularists, Islamists, and liberals alike understand the Turkish state to be the primary arbiter of Islam's place in Turkey—as the coup attempt of... more
The sway of Islam in political life is an unavoidable topic of debate in Turkey today. Secularists, Islamists, and liberals alike understand the Turkish state to be the primary arbiter of Islam's place in Turkey—as the coup attempt of July 2016 and its aftermath have dramatically illustrated. Yet this emphasis on the state ignores the influence of another field of political action in relation to Islam, that of civil society. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Istanbul and Ankara, Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey is Jeremy F. Walton's inquiry into the political and religious practices of contemporary Turkish-Muslim Nongovernmental Organizations. Since the mid-1980s, Turkey has witnessed an efflorescence of NGOs in tandem with a neoliberal turn in domestic economic policies and electoral politics. One major effect of this neoliberal turn has been the emergence of a vibrant Muslim civil society, which has decentered and transformed the Turkish state's relationship to Islam. Muslim NGOs champion religious freedom as a paramount political ideal and marshal a distinctive, nongovernmental politics of religious freedom to advocate this ideal. Walton's accomplished study offers a fine-grained perspective on this nongovernmental politics of religious freedom and the institutions and communities from which it emerges.
Research Interests: Religion, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Religion & the Public Sphere, and 14 moreTurkish and Middle East Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Islam, Cultural Anthropology, Anthropology of Alevism, Islamic movements (Anthropology Of Religion), Civil Society, Religious Studies, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Anthropology of Islam, Alevi Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests:
This OPEN ACCESS volume presents ten visual essays that reflect on the historical, cultural and socio-political legacies of empires. Drawing on a variety of visual genres and forms, including photographs, illustrated advertisements,... more
This OPEN ACCESS volume presents ten visual essays that reflect on the historical, cultural and socio-political legacies of empires. Drawing on a variety of visual genres and forms, including photographs, illustrated advertisements, stills from site-specific art performances and films, and maps, the book illuminates the contours of empire's social worlds and its political legacies through the visual essay. The guiding, titular metaphor, sharpening the haze, captures our commitment to frame empire from different vantage points, seeking focus within its plural modes of power. We contend that critical scholarship on empires would benefit from more creative attempts to reveal and confront empire...
Research Interests:
Programme and Book of Abstracts of the Conference Art and the State
in Modern Central Europe (18th – 21st Century)
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
30 June 2021 – 3 July 2021, Zagreb, Croatia
in Modern Central Europe (18th – 21st Century)
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb
30 June 2021 – 3 July 2021, Zagreb, Croatia
Research Interests: Art History, Architecture, Contemporary Art, Modern Art, Architectural History, and 15 moreHistory of Art, Modernism (Art History), Interwar Period History, Political Art, Art Theory and Politics, Central European Studies, Cultural History of Central Europe, Visual Arts, Central and Eastern Europe, Art and Politics, Cultural History of Habsburg Empire 1800-1918, Art and Design, Art & Architecture, Conservation and Restoration of Historic Buildings and Monuments, and Austria-Hungary
This volume compiles a selection of papers that were originally presented at the international conference, Art and Politics in Europe in the Modern Period, held at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb... more
This volume compiles a selection of papers that were originally presented at the international conference, Art and Politics in Europe in the Modern Period, held at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb from June 29 to July 2, 2016. The main aim of the conference, and therefore of this volume as well, was to establish a comprehensive perspective on the intricate relationships between art and political regimes as seen from various vantages and based on different discourses (governmental, social, economic, religious, gender, ethnic and the like) in the period from the 15th century until the present.
Research Interests: European History, Art History, Architecture and politics, History of Art, Art Criticism, and 15 morePolitical Art, Art Theory and Politics, Cultural History of Central Europe, Political Representation, Modern European History, Art and nationalism, History of architecture, Art and Politics, Patronage of Arts and Education, History of Art and Architecture, Austria-Hungary, State policy and the arts, Arts, Politics and Culture, Political Art and Activist Art, and The Cultural Politics of Architecture and Urban Design
This special section on 'Siting Pluralism: the Spatialities of Religious Difference,' is guest edited by Jeremy F. Walton and Neena Mahadev. It includes the guest editors' co-authored introduction, and 4 additional papers by Elina I.... more
This special section on 'Siting Pluralism: the Spatialities of Religious Difference,' is guest edited by Jeremy F. Walton and Neena Mahadev. It includes the guest editors' co-authored introduction, and 4 additional papers by Elina I. Hartikainen, Melissa L. Caldwell, Neena Mahadev, and by Jeremy F. Walton & Piro Rexhepi. The collection is followed by incisive commentary by Winnifred F. Sullivan.
Link to the issue of Religion & Society is here: https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/religion-and-society/10/1/religion-and-society.10.issue-1.xml
Link to the issue of Religion & Society is here: https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/religion-and-society/10/1/religion-and-society.10.issue-1.xml
Research Interests:
"Global events of the early twenty-first century have placed new stress on the relationship among anthropology, governance, and war. Facing prolonged insurgency, segments of the U.S. military have taken a new interest in anthropology,... more
"Global events of the early twenty-first century have placed new stress on the relationship among anthropology, governance, and war. Facing prolonged insurgency, segments of the U.S. military have taken a new interest in anthropology, prompting intense ethical and scholarly debate. Inspired by these issues, the essays in Anthropology and Global Counterinsurgency consider how anthropologists can, should, and do respond to military overtures, and they articulate anthropological perspectives on global war and power relations.
This book investigates the shifting boundaries between military and civil state violence; perceptions and effects of American power around the globe; the history of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice; and debate over culture, knowledge, and conscience in counterinsurgency. These wide-ranging essays shed new light on the fraught world of Pax Americana and on the ethical and political dilemmas faced by anthropologists and military personnel alike when attempting to understand and intervene in our world."
This book investigates the shifting boundaries between military and civil state violence; perceptions and effects of American power around the globe; the history of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice; and debate over culture, knowledge, and conscience in counterinsurgency. These wide-ranging essays shed new light on the fraught world of Pax Americana and on the ethical and political dilemmas faced by anthropologists and military personnel alike when attempting to understand and intervene in our world."
Research Interests: Military History, Anthropology, American Politics, Social Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies, and 17 moreSocial Sciences, Human Rights, Social and Cultural Anthropology, War Studies, Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency(COIN), Peacekeeping, Cultural Anthropology, Empire, Peacebuilding, Imperialism, Human Terrain, Maldives, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Stabilization and Reconstruction, and Post Conflict Issues
On an embankment in the Istanbul neighborhood Fener-Balat, a striking edifice looms over the waters of the Golden Horn: Sveti Stefan Church, a cast-iron house of worship that constitutes the most visible legacy of Ottoman Istanbul’s... more
On an embankment in the Istanbul neighborhood Fener-Balat, a striking
edifice looms over the waters of the Golden Horn: Sveti Stefan Church, a cast-iron house of worship that constitutes the most visible legacy of Ottoman Istanbul’s Bulgarian Orthodox community. The warm welcome that one is likely to receive at the visitor’s cubicle near the entrance to the church contrasts sharply with its solemn architectural atmosphere. Since the completion of renovations in 2018, the so-called Iron Church is open to visitors as a site that celebrates a multicultural image of the Ottoman past. In this essay, I meditate on the convoluted history of Sveti Stefan and its community in order to unsettle the sanitized collective memory and discourse of interreligious tolerance that has come to rest in the church today.
edifice looms over the waters of the Golden Horn: Sveti Stefan Church, a cast-iron house of worship that constitutes the most visible legacy of Ottoman Istanbul’s Bulgarian Orthodox community. The warm welcome that one is likely to receive at the visitor’s cubicle near the entrance to the church contrasts sharply with its solemn architectural atmosphere. Since the completion of renovations in 2018, the so-called Iron Church is open to visitors as a site that celebrates a multicultural image of the Ottoman past. In this essay, I meditate on the convoluted history of Sveti Stefan and its community in order to unsettle the sanitized collective memory and discourse of interreligious tolerance that has come to rest in the church today.
Research Interests:
In this introduction to our edited section, “Istanbul through the Looking Glass,” I draw on Orhan Pamuk’s works—in particular The Black Book—to develop a multi-perspectival approach to Istanbul’s heterogeneous past and the contemporary... more
In this introduction to our edited section, “Istanbul through the Looking
Glass,” I draw on Orhan Pamuk’s works—in particular The Black Book—to develop a multi-perspectival approach to Istanbul’s heterogeneous past and the contemporary collective memories that frame this past. First, I forward a critique of homogenizing narratives of Istanbul, in particular neo-Ottoman images of the city. For shorthand, I call these images “silhouettes.” Next, by invoking The Black Book’s extended metaphor of the city’s sunken past in the Bosphorus, I draw attention to the “submersions” of Istanbul’s history that our collection explores. Finally, I summarize the contents of the volume, which are divided across three sections: “Sites,” “Districts,” and “Discourses.”
Glass,” I draw on Orhan Pamuk’s works—in particular The Black Book—to develop a multi-perspectival approach to Istanbul’s heterogeneous past and the contemporary collective memories that frame this past. First, I forward a critique of homogenizing narratives of Istanbul, in particular neo-Ottoman images of the city. For shorthand, I call these images “silhouettes.” Next, by invoking The Black Book’s extended metaphor of the city’s sunken past in the Bosphorus, I draw attention to the “submersions” of Istanbul’s history that our collection explores. Finally, I summarize the contents of the volume, which are divided across three sections: “Sites,” “Districts,” and “Discourses.”
Research Interests:
How might scholars of public memory approach the protean relationship among imperial legacies, nationalized collective memories and urban space from an “off-center” perspective? In this essay, I pursue this question in relation to a... more
How might scholars of public memory approach the protean relationship among imperial legacies, nationalized collective memories and urban space from an “off-center” perspective? In this essay, I pursue this question in relation to a monument whose political biography traverses, and troubles, the distinction between imperial and national times, sentiments, and polities. The statue in question is that of Ban Josip Jelačić, a 19th Century figure who was both a loyal servant of the Habsburg Empire and a personification of nascent Croatian and South Slavic national aspirations. Jelačić’s monument was erected in Zagreb’s central square in 1866, only seven years following his death; in the heady political context of the Dual Monarchy, his apotheosis as a figure of regional rebellion caused consternation on the part of the Hungarian authorities. Nor did the statue's controversy end with the Habsburgs. Following World War II, Jelačić's embodiment of Croat national pride proved anathema to Yugoslav socialist federalism, and the monument was dismantled in 1947, only to be re-erected following the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Croatian independence in 1991. Accordingly, the statue of Jelačić is a privileged material medium of and for nationalist memory in Croatia, even as it also conjures ghosts of the city’s and state’s imperial and socialist pasts. I theorize this play of hegemonic and repressed collective memories through the concepts of public affect and mana, especially in relation to several recent public events that centered on the statue: the memorial to Bosnian-Croat general Slobodan Praljak, who committed suicide during proceedings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in November 2017, and the celebration of Croatia's achievements in the 2018 World Cup.
Research Interests:
In pursuit of a novel perspective on legacies of empire in the present, this introduction addresses prominent debates related to post-imperialism, collective memory, and the construction of historical knowledge, while also reviewing... more
In pursuit of a novel perspective on legacies of empire in the
present, this introduction addresses prominent debates related to
post-imperialism, collective memory, and the construction of
historical knowledge, while also reviewing recent trends in post-
Habsburg and post-Ottoman studies. First, I examine the insights
and limitations of ‘memory studies,’ ultimately proposing a more
capacious model of post-imperial ‘ambivalence.’ I then
recapitulate Walter Benjamin’s dialectical approach to historical
knowledge in order to anchor the signal conceptual contribution
of the volume, ‘textured historicity.’ This discussion is followed by
a meditation on the role of metaphors in conceptualizing postimperial
legacies and a roster of the most common metaphors for
post-imperial legacies. Finally, the introduction briefly summarizes
the volume’s constituent essays and the rubrics that unite them.
present, this introduction addresses prominent debates related to
post-imperialism, collective memory, and the construction of
historical knowledge, while also reviewing recent trends in post-
Habsburg and post-Ottoman studies. First, I examine the insights
and limitations of ‘memory studies,’ ultimately proposing a more
capacious model of post-imperial ‘ambivalence.’ I then
recapitulate Walter Benjamin’s dialectical approach to historical
knowledge in order to anchor the signal conceptual contribution
of the volume, ‘textured historicity.’ This discussion is followed by
a meditation on the role of metaphors in conceptualizing postimperial
legacies and a roster of the most common metaphors for
post-imperial legacies. Finally, the introduction briefly summarizes
the volume’s constituent essays and the rubrics that unite them.
Research Interests:
In this essay, I examine an early modern battle between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, the Siege of Szigetvár, and its protagonists, Nikola Šubić Zrinski and Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent, as sites of memory in Hungary, Croatia, and... more
In this essay, I examine an early modern battle between the
Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, the Siege of Szigetvár, and its
protagonists, Nikola Šubić Zrinski and Sultan Süleyman the
Magnificent, as sites of memory in Hungary, Croatia, and Turkey.
In relation to recent commemorations of the Siege, I focus on
how sanctioned memories of Szigetvár have been sanitized for
national(ist) ends, evacuating fraught historical and political
questions related to the enmity between the two empires.
Concomitantly, I pursue the silences and erasures that hegemonic
memories of the battle and its protagonists have produced, both
in relation to specific landscapes of memory in Szigetvár and
through an analysis of three narratives of the Siege: a Hungarianlanguage
epic poem, a Croatian opera, and a Turkish television
serial.
Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, the Siege of Szigetvár, and its
protagonists, Nikola Šubić Zrinski and Sultan Süleyman the
Magnificent, as sites of memory in Hungary, Croatia, and Turkey.
In relation to recent commemorations of the Siege, I focus on
how sanctioned memories of Szigetvár have been sanitized for
national(ist) ends, evacuating fraught historical and political
questions related to the enmity between the two empires.
Concomitantly, I pursue the silences and erasures that hegemonic
memories of the battle and its protagonists have produced, both
in relation to specific landscapes of memory in Szigetvár and
through an analysis of three narratives of the Siege: a Hungarianlanguage
epic poem, a Croatian opera, and a Turkish television
serial.
Research Interests: History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Ottoman History, and 12 moreCultural Heritage, Habsburg Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Croatian History, Turkey, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Ottoman-Habsburg relations, Empire, Hungary, Suleyman the magnificent, and Zrinski/Zrinyi family
The introduction to this special section foregrounds the key distinction between ‘religious plurality’ and ‘interreligious pluralism’. Building from the example of a recent controversy over an exhibition on shared religious sites in... more
The introduction to this special section foregrounds the key distinction between ‘religious plurality’ and ‘interreligious pluralism’. Building from the example of a recent controversy over an exhibition on shared religious sites in Thessaloniki, Greece, we analyze the ways in which advocates and adversaries of pluralism alternately place minority religions at the center or attempt to relegate them to the margins of visual, spatial, and political fields. To establish the conceptual scaffolding that supports this special section, we engage the complex relations that govern the operations of state and civil society, sacrality and secularity, as well as spectacular acts of disavowal that simultaneously coincide with everyday multiplicities in the shared use of space. We conclude with brief summaries of the four articles that site religious plurality and interreligious pluralism in the diverse contexts of Brazil, Russia, Sri Lanka, and the Balkans.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Multiculturalism, and 13 morePlace and Identity, Religion and Politics, Space and Place, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ritual, Religious Pluralism, Memory Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Phenomenology of Space and Place, Tolerance, Pluralism, Religious Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
n ABSTRACT: Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the... more
n ABSTRACT: Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the discourses and politics surrounding Islamic institutions in four post-Yugoslav nation-states: Kosovo, Macedonia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Our analysis moves in two directions. On the one hand, we illuminate the historical legacies and institutional ties that unite Muslims across these four contexts. As we argue, this institutional history continues to mandate a singular, hege-monic model of Sunni-Hanafi Islam that pre-emptively delegitimizes Muslim communities outside of its orbit. On the other hand, we also attend to the contrasting national politics of Islam in each of our four contexts, ranging from Islamophobic anxiety and suspicion to multiculturalism, from a minority politics of differentiation to hegemonic images of ethno-national religiosity. n Discussions of religious pluralism habitually proceed from the ostensible 'social fact' of religious difference. Religious plurality is taken to define a plethora of contexts, ranging from medieval Iberia and the Ottoman Empire to India, Egypt, the United States, and the European Union. 1 Elementary political questions concerning the relationship between majority and minority religious communities and the modes of governance appropriate to religiously diverse societies follow from the social fact of religious difference. The motifs of inter-religious tolerance, convivencia, and coexistence among religious communities structure these debates, especially in relation to the transnational politics of 'religious freedom' (Hurd 2015; Sullivan 2005). Furthermore, political projects of religious pluralism have achieved new inflection and focus in the post-9/11 era, as Muslims, particularly the minoritized residents of European and North American liberal democracies , have become targets of the 'governmentality' of tolerance (Brown 2006). Frequently, the politically vested distinction between 'good' and 'bad' Muslims (Mamdani 2004) rests solely on the perceived attitudes of Muslim minorities toward other religious communities and traditions, and, concomitantly, their adherence to or departure from the expectations of liberal secularism.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT: Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the... more
ABSTRACT: Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the discourses and politics surrounding Islamic institutions in four post-Yugoslav nation-states: Kosovo, Macedonia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Our analysis moves in two directions. On the one hand, we illuminate the historical legacies and institutional ties that unite Muslims across these four contexts. As we argue, this institutional history continues to mandate a singular, hege-monic model of Sunni-Hanafi Islam that pre-emptively delegitimizes Muslim communities outside of its orbit. On the other hand, we also attend to the contrasting national politics of Islam in each of our four contexts, ranging from Islamophobic anxiety and suspicion to multiculturalism, from a minority politics of differentiation to hegemonic images of ethno-national religiosity. n
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Space and Place, Balkan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Contemporary Studies, and 15 moreKosovo, Religious Pluralism, Yugoslavia, Islamic Studies, Islamic History, Islam, Southeastern Europe, Yugoslavia (History), Religious Studies, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests:
In this essay, I draw on Pierre Nora’s concept of “sites of memory” to explore the material textures and political effects of Neo-Ottomanism in three locations: Miniatürk, a theme park in Istanbul that features scale replicas of many... more
In this essay, I draw on Pierre Nora’s concept of “sites of memory” to explore the material textures and political effects of Neo-Ottomanism in three locations: Miniatürk, a theme park in Istanbul that features scale replicas of many prominent Ottoman structures; Thessaloniki’s New Mosque, a former place of worship for the syncretic religious community of the dönme; and the Tomb of Gül Baba, a 16th Century Sufi dervish and saint, in Budapest. My exposition moves in two directions. On the one hand, I emphasize how sites of memory frequently serve to bolster dominant, politicized discourses of Neo-Ottomanism. On the other hand, I trace how sites of renascent Ottoman memory—especially those outside of Turkey— undermine and contradict the premises of Neo-Ottomanism in unanticipated ways. Over the course of my presentation, I develop the concept of “disciplined historicity” as a method for approaching sites of memory that integrates both historical knowledge and appreciation for the material and aesthetic qualities of the spaces in question
Research Interests:
Drawing on research conducted at a mosque in the Croatian port city of Rijeka and an integrated space of worship (a " mosque-cem house ") for Sunni and Alevi Muslims in the Turkish capital of Ankara, this essay traces the divergences... more
Drawing on research conducted at a mosque in the Croatian port city of Rijeka and an integrated space of worship (a " mosque-cem house ") for Sunni and Alevi Muslims in the Turkish capital of Ankara, this essay traces the divergences between discursive practices and spatial practices in relation to infrastructures of religious diversity. After developing a theoretical model based on Michel de Certeau's distinction between place and space, I examine the shared discourse of interreligious tolerance and pluralism that framed both Rijeka's New Mosque and Ankara's mosque-cem house. Following this, I analyze the radically different spatial practices choreographed by the two projects: the spatial " mixing " of distinct religious communities and forms of worship in the case of the mosque-cem house, and the spatial separation and sequestration of Islam in relation to the city and nation at large in the case of the New Mosque. I argue that the contrast between the politicization of the mosque-cem house project and the near-unanimous approbation for the New Mosque stems from this contrast in spatial practices. The essay concludes with a vignette from the neighborhood near the mosque-cem house that draws attention to the potential contradictions between infrastructures of diversity and more protean forms of social, cultural, and religious plurality.
Research Interests: Space and Place, Religion & the Public Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Islam in Turkey, and 12 moreIslam, Modern Turkey, Tolerance, Anthropology of Alevism, Balkans, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Western Balkans, Croatia, Anthropology of Islam, Alevi Studies, Religion and Public Life, and Architecture and Public Spaces
Based on ethnographic research in Croatia and Turkey, this article explores two projects of inter-religious tolerance in relation to broader logics of cultural and spatial intimacy. In the Croatian case, the focus is on the public... more
Based on ethnographic research in Croatia and Turkey, this article explores two projects of inter-religious tolerance in relation to broader logics of cultural and spatial intimacy. In the Croatian case, the focus is on the public discourse surrounding Rijeka's Nova Džamija [New Mosque] which pivoted on a perception of the shared victimization of Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians at the hands of Serbs during the wars of the 1990s. For Turkey, we focus on a project in Ankara that aims to provide a single site of worship for Sunni and Alevi Muslims, a 'mosque-cem house'. The analysis highlights some common formations of tolerance and cultural intimacy expressed by both projects, as well as the divergent spatial practices and modes of spatial intimacy that distinguish the two sites.
Research Interests:
Abstract Is Hizmet liberal? The question is intractable both for Hizmet actors and for the Turkish public sphere more broadly. In this essay, I marshal ethnographic research carried out over several years among Hizmet institutions in... more
Abstract
Is Hizmet liberal? The question is intractable both for Hizmet actors and for the Turkish public sphere more broadly. In this essay, I marshal ethnographic research carried out over several years among Hizmet institutions in Istanbul to shed light on the politics of this question. I examine several characteristic Hizmet institutions in order to argue that Hizmet forges a synthesis between Islamic and liberal discourses and practices. This synthesis unravels dichotomous images of Islam and liberalism as necessarily opposed. In particular, I analyze ethical values such as “positive action” (müspet hareket), “service” (hizmet), and
piety (taqwa), as well as initiatives, such as interreligious dialogue (dinler arası diyalog), carried out by Hizmet-affiliated charitable foundations/pious endowments (vakıflar). By way of conclusion, I reevaluate the title question of the article to unpack the dialectical
tension embedded between liberal political projects and liberalism as a disciplining power.
Is Hizmet liberal? The question is intractable both for Hizmet actors and for the Turkish public sphere more broadly. In this essay, I marshal ethnographic research carried out over several years among Hizmet institutions in Istanbul to shed light on the politics of this question. I examine several characteristic Hizmet institutions in order to argue that Hizmet forges a synthesis between Islamic and liberal discourses and practices. This synthesis unravels dichotomous images of Islam and liberalism as necessarily opposed. In particular, I analyze ethical values such as “positive action” (müspet hareket), “service” (hizmet), and
piety (taqwa), as well as initiatives, such as interreligious dialogue (dinler arası diyalog), carried out by Hizmet-affiliated charitable foundations/pious endowments (vakıflar). By way of conclusion, I reevaluate the title question of the article to unpack the dialectical
tension embedded between liberal political projects and liberalism as a disciplining power.
Research Interests:
A B S T R A C T Practices and ideals of confessional pluralism and liberal interpretations of Islam have achieved new prominence in Turkish civil society in recent years. In this article, I marshal fieldwork conducted among a variety... more
A B S T R A C T
Practices and ideals of confessional pluralism and
liberal interpretations of Islam have achieved new
prominence in Turkish civil society in recent years.
In this article, I marshal fieldwork conducted among
a variety of Turkish Islamic civil society institutions
to argue that confessional pluralism and liberal
Islam have reoriented practices of politics and
secularism in Turkey. As I demonstrate, liberal
discourse about religious difference emerges within
civil society as a foil to hegemonic, homogeneous
visions of Islam on the part of the state. My
principal theoretical contribution is the civil society
effect: how the institutions and discourses of civil
society are idealized and rendered distinct from
state power. Ethnographically, I focus on two
religious groups that have achieved organization
within civil society: Turkish Alevis and supporters of
the Sunni Hizmet Movement. [Islam, secularism, civil
society, liberalism, pluralism, Turkey]
Practices and ideals of confessional pluralism and
liberal interpretations of Islam have achieved new
prominence in Turkish civil society in recent years.
In this article, I marshal fieldwork conducted among
a variety of Turkish Islamic civil society institutions
to argue that confessional pluralism and liberal
Islam have reoriented practices of politics and
secularism in Turkey. As I demonstrate, liberal
discourse about religious difference emerges within
civil society as a foil to hegemonic, homogeneous
visions of Islam on the part of the state. My
principal theoretical contribution is the civil society
effect: how the institutions and discourses of civil
society are idealized and rendered distinct from
state power. Ethnographically, I focus on two
religious groups that have achieved organization
within civil society: Turkish Alevis and supporters of
the Sunni Hizmet Movement. [Islam, secularism, civil
society, liberalism, pluralism, Turkey]
Research Interests: Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Liberalism, Religion & the Public Sphere, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, and 10 morePublic Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Modern Turkey, Political Islam, Civil Society, Anthropology of Islam, and Anthropology of Religion
This thematic issue of Die Welt des Islams, volume 56, no. 3/4, features 11 articles (6 historical and 5 contemporary) on the different faces of Ottomanism, in the 19th century, and its (re)interpretation, today.
Research Interests: Ottoman History, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkey, Ottoman Empire, and 17 moreOttoman Balkans, Late Ottoman Period, Modern Turkey, Ottomanism, Ottoman Jewry, Ottoman Arab Provinces, Late Ottoman History, Néo-ottomanism, Young Turks, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jewish Ottoman History, The AKP in Turkey: Interior Politics and Foreign Issues, Nationalism and transnationalism of post-Ottoman Muslims, Non-Muslim Minorities in Late Ottoman Empire, İttihad ve Terakki, Ottoman history, Serbian history and Balcan history in 19 century, and Sultan II. Abdülhamid
In recent years, Tim Ingold has spared no ink in his efforts to propose and police a strict distinction between anthropology and ethnography. In this essay, I build on Ingold’s critique by foregrounding the “graphic” dilemmas that... more
In recent years, Tim Ingold has spared no ink in his efforts to propose and police a strict distinction between anthropology and ethnography. In this essay, I build on Ingold’s critique by foregrounding the “graphic” dilemmas that anthropology and ethnography entail. Ingold urges anthropology to dispatch with the idiographic genre of ethnography, but he does not suggest an alternative genre in its place. I forecast such a genre by mining the writings of Walter Benjamin. Benjamin’s “graphic” response to the positivist historiography is roughly equivalent to Ingold’s critique of ethnography; this response is not merely a matter of theoretical intervention, but also a practice of writing. As a coda, I illustrate the sort of Benjaminian anthropological writing I have in mind with reference to a former mosque in Thessaloniki that, due to its lack of any coherent contemporary community, defies ethnography as both a method and a genre.
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Research Interests: Religion, Anthropology, Space and Place, Balkan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 9 moreIslamic Studies, Ottoman Empire, Memory Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Southeastern Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Religious Studies, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Anthropology of Religion
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In this essay, I reconsider the politics of contemporary philanthropy by navigating between two dominant ideological perspectives on civil society: depoliticization and de-monization. I do so with reference to the recent tribulations of... more
In this essay, I reconsider the politics of contemporary philanthropy by navigating between two dominant ideological perspectives on civil society: depoliticization and de-monization. I do so with reference to the recent tribulations of three famous magnate-philanthropists , Osman Kavala, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and George Soros. By revisiting my concept of the "civil society effect"-the romanticizing of civil society as a domain free from instrumental political motivations-I aim to shed light on the broader political terrain of contemporary capitalism, in which private capital is too easily understood as a neutral medium for political transformations. At the same time, I focus on the histories and genealogies that the depoliticization of civil society silences, especially the imperial legacies that opponents of liberal philosophy-new authoritarians such as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán-frequently invoke with pugnacity.
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In this special issue of the journal Edinost, we gather a colloquium of scholars to reflect on the myriad relations between the history of Trieste and its contemporary forms of urbanism and urbanity. We focus especially on the role of... more
In this special issue of the journal Edinost, we gather a colloquium of scholars to reflect on the myriad relations between the history of Trieste and its contemporary forms of urbanism and urbanity. We focus especially on the role of Habsburg monuments as anchors for images of the past in public space.
Research Interests: Urban Geography, Anthropology, Italian Studies, Space and Place, Urban History, and 15 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, History and Memory, Habsburg Studies, Urban Studies, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Collective Memory, Cultural Anthropology, Empire, Public Space, Italy, Imperialism, Trieste, Monuments, and Architecture and Public Spaces
Research Interests: Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, and 11 moreNeoliberalism, Politics of Secularism, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Secularisms and Secularities, Modern Turkey, Governance and Civil Society, Public Space, Civil Society, Secularism, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests: Anthropology, Governmentality, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Turkish and Middle East Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, and 14 moreTurkey, Islamic Studies, Neoliberalism, Politics of Secularism, Islam in Turkey, Secularisms and Secularities, Modern Turkey, Anthropology of Alevism, Political Islam, Civil Society, Islamic Movements and Political Islam, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Islam and Secularism, and Alevi Studies
A new Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, under the direction of Dr. Jeremy F. Walton, seeks to appoint postdoctoral and doctoral research fellows with outstanding academic records.... more
A new Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, under the direction of Dr. Jeremy F. Walton, seeks to appoint postdoctoral and doctoral research fellows with outstanding academic records. We welcome applicants from a variety of fields in the social sciences and humanities, including Anthropology, History, Sociology, Geography, Urban Studies, Art History, Architectural History, and Comparative Literature, to work on a collaborative, five-year research project titled “Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities.” The overarching objective of our project is to examine the forms, textures, and effects of imperial memories in relation to contemporary urban culture and politics in six cities: Vienna, Istanbul, Budapest, Sarajevo, Trieste, and Thessaloniki. Fellows will be expected to pursue their own individual projects in light of the following set of broad research questions: In what forums, genres, and media—narrative, visual, architectural, scholarly, etc.—are memories of Habsburg and Ottoman pasts articulated and elaborated? How do imperial memories, both positive and negative, inform and underwrite contemporary projects of urban preservation and transformation? In what ways and contexts do the imperial pasts of cities link up with national and EU-wide political debates and projects? What frictions do narratives of imperial pasts provoke in contemporary political life? Finally, how do memories of empire inform the politics of nationalism and the nation-state in these various cities?
Research Interests: European History, Eastern European Studies, European Studies, Ottoman History, Cultural Heritage, and 17 moreItalian Studies, Balkan Studies, Balkan History, Urban Anthropology, Habsburg Studies, Urban Studies, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Memory Studies, Hungarian Studies, Ottoman-Habsburg relations, Austrian History, Modern Greek Studies, Bosnian History, Western Balkans, Anthropology of Space and Place, and Austrian Studies
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Research Interests: European Studies, Islamic Law, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Islamic Contemporary Studies, and 8 moreIslam in Europe, Islamic Studies, Islam, Islamic movements (Anthropology Of Religion), Islamic Movements and Political Islam, Anthropology of Islam, Great Britain, and Anthropology of Religion
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Book review of Elizabeth Shakman Hurd's Beyond Religious Freedom, published on The Immanent Frame, April 2016
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Research Interests: Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkey, and 11 moreIslamic Studies, Politics of Secularism, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Secularisms and Secularities, Modern Turkey, Cultural Anthropology, Secularism, Islam and Secularism, Anthropology of Islam, and Anthropology of Religion
Online program for the conference "Postcolonial, Decolonial, Postimperial, Deimperial," to be held on 21 May 2024.
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Extended program for the conference "Postcolonial, Decolonial, Postimperial, Deimperial," to be held at the University of Rijeka Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 15-17 May 2024.
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Brief program for the conference "Postcolonial, Decolonial, Postimperial, Deimperial," to be held at the University of Rijeka Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 15-17 May 2024, and online on 21 May 2024.
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Hagia Sophia’s Conversions: Reflections on the Political, Temporal, and Aesthetic Dimensions of Heritage A Zoom-based webinar hosted by the Max Planck Research Group, “Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former... more
Hagia Sophia’s Conversions: Reflections on the Political, Temporal, and Aesthetic Dimensions of Heritage
A Zoom-based webinar hosted by the Max Planck Research Group, “Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities,” 10 November 2020, 18:00 Central European Time
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As a discourse and a set of institutionalized policies, heritage-making necessarily involves a complex mix of identities, politics, and power. Simultaneously, the sites, objects and practices that heritage seeks to encompass and preserve are myriad, defined by disparate histories that are not equally suitable to the ends that heritagization seeks. Hagia Sophia, which stood at the symbolic center of two great empires and continues to inspire identification on the part of two religions, represents a unique example of this dynamic. It is no surprise that Hagia Sophia is still claimed by different religious actors, in different languages: it is a witness to and protagonist of a plethora of legends and histories, which simultaneously inform and unsettle recent decisions to manipulate heritage discourse for political gains.
On July 10, 2020, Hagia Sophia once again became a mosque when the Turkish Council of State revoked its museum status, which had been granted in 1934 in an attempt to diffuse its imperial connotations and open the building to researchers. Two weeks later, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of worshippers gathered to celebrate the opening with an initial Friday prayer. The reopening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque was the result of a long campaign, most recently led by Turkey's ruling party, the AKP. When President Erdoğan called for the reconversion of Hagia Sophia as a “return to its origin” (aslına rücu), he initiated another recontextualization of the monument and the elevation of only one of its many histories.
Against this backdrop, our seminar will address three larger themes in relation to Hagia Sophia as a space and place, both today and in the past. First, we aim to unpack the tension between the anti-imperialist discourse that accompanied the museum’s reconversion, and the language and symbolism of (re)conquest that marked the reopening celebrations. Secondly, in light of proposals to share Ayasofya by opening it for prayer on the part of different communities on various Christian and Islamic holidays, we seek to understand Hagia Sophia in the wider context of shared sacred spaces. Third, we hope to sharpen our perspective on the dense relationship among space, aesthetics, and historicity that Hagia Sophia embodies, especially in relation to its intangible Byzantine heritage.
A Zoom-based webinar hosted by the Max Planck Research Group, “Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Cities,” 10 November 2020, 18:00 Central European Time
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As a discourse and a set of institutionalized policies, heritage-making necessarily involves a complex mix of identities, politics, and power. Simultaneously, the sites, objects and practices that heritage seeks to encompass and preserve are myriad, defined by disparate histories that are not equally suitable to the ends that heritagization seeks. Hagia Sophia, which stood at the symbolic center of two great empires and continues to inspire identification on the part of two religions, represents a unique example of this dynamic. It is no surprise that Hagia Sophia is still claimed by different religious actors, in different languages: it is a witness to and protagonist of a plethora of legends and histories, which simultaneously inform and unsettle recent decisions to manipulate heritage discourse for political gains.
On July 10, 2020, Hagia Sophia once again became a mosque when the Turkish Council of State revoked its museum status, which had been granted in 1934 in an attempt to diffuse its imperial connotations and open the building to researchers. Two weeks later, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, tens of thousands of worshippers gathered to celebrate the opening with an initial Friday prayer. The reopening of Hagia Sophia as a mosque was the result of a long campaign, most recently led by Turkey's ruling party, the AKP. When President Erdoğan called for the reconversion of Hagia Sophia as a “return to its origin” (aslına rücu), he initiated another recontextualization of the monument and the elevation of only one of its many histories.
Against this backdrop, our seminar will address three larger themes in relation to Hagia Sophia as a space and place, both today and in the past. First, we aim to unpack the tension between the anti-imperialist discourse that accompanied the museum’s reconversion, and the language and symbolism of (re)conquest that marked the reopening celebrations. Secondly, in light of proposals to share Ayasofya by opening it for prayer on the part of different communities on various Christian and Islamic holidays, we seek to understand Hagia Sophia in the wider context of shared sacred spaces. Third, we hope to sharpen our perspective on the dense relationship among space, aesthetics, and historicity that Hagia Sophia embodies, especially in relation to its intangible Byzantine heritage.
Research Interests: Anthropology, Art History, Ottoman History, Cultural Heritage, Political Science, and 13 moreCivil Society and the Public Sphere, Byzantine Studies, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Modern Turkey, Orthodox Christianity, Turkish politics, Religious Studies, Istanbul, Monuments, Hagia Sophia, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Ayasofya Müzesi
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Stones May Break: On the Politics of Monumentalization in Times of Toppling Statues," took place online on 5 October 2020. Our discussion features presentations by Peter Kabachnik, Professor of Geography, College of Staten Island, CUNY;... more
Stones May Break: On the Politics of Monumentalization in Times of Toppling Statues," took place online on 5 October 2020. Our discussion features presentations by Peter Kabachnik, Professor of Geography,
College of Staten Island, CUNY; Banu Karaca, EUME, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin; Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum; and Rahul Rao, Senior Lecturer in Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. It is was moderated by Jeremy F. Walton and sponsored by the Max Planck Research Group, "Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Lands," based at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany.
Recent months and years have testified to the evanescence of histories encased in bronze, iron and stone. In 2015, student protestors at the University of Cape Town initiated an ultimately successful movement to remove a statue commemorating the notorious colonial administrator and racist Cecil Rhodes. The Rhodes Must Fall campaign reverberated
across the globe. More recently, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, Black Lives Matter demonstrators have powerfully interrogated public monuments to historical figures who benefitted from and advocated slavery and apartheid, leading to statues toppling on both sides of the Atlantic. In sum, memorials that were sites of amnesia and inattention for decades have become lightning rods for politics in the present. We take inspiration from the critical demands ofthis moment to pose a timely provocation: How can, and should, public forms of commemoration and memorialization proceed moving forward? While the anti-racist sentiments that have contributed to overturning statues are beyond reproach, the politics of monumentalization becomes murkier when the historical valences of a monument multiply.
In this webinar, we gather together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines who have conducted research on monuments, political aesthetics and public space more broadly to reflect on the recent political drama surrounding statues and monuments. We seek new perspectives on a plethora of questions: Does the current imperative to topple racist monuments draw from earlier iconoclasms and idol-smashing? If so, how? What might we learn from statues and monuments that have fallen, and occasionally been re-erected, in the past? How should we understand the confrontation between anti-racist politics in the present and the material legacies of racism? How might the reappraisal and destruction of monuments yield to new constructions of collective memory that refuse the erasure of racist pasts? Can memorialization in the future proceed without repeating the sins of monumentalization in the past?
College of Staten Island, CUNY; Banu Karaca, EUME, Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin; Susan Neiman, Director of the Einstein Forum; and Rahul Rao, Senior Lecturer in Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. It is was moderated by Jeremy F. Walton and sponsored by the Max Planck Research Group, "Empires of Memory: The Cultural Politics of Historicity in Former Habsburg and Ottoman Lands," based at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Göttingen, Germany.
Recent months and years have testified to the evanescence of histories encased in bronze, iron and stone. In 2015, student protestors at the University of Cape Town initiated an ultimately successful movement to remove a statue commemorating the notorious colonial administrator and racist Cecil Rhodes. The Rhodes Must Fall campaign reverberated
across the globe. More recently, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis on 25 May 2020, Black Lives Matter demonstrators have powerfully interrogated public monuments to historical figures who benefitted from and advocated slavery and apartheid, leading to statues toppling on both sides of the Atlantic. In sum, memorials that were sites of amnesia and inattention for decades have become lightning rods for politics in the present. We take inspiration from the critical demands ofthis moment to pose a timely provocation: How can, and should, public forms of commemoration and memorialization proceed moving forward? While the anti-racist sentiments that have contributed to overturning statues are beyond reproach, the politics of monumentalization becomes murkier when the historical valences of a monument multiply.
In this webinar, we gather together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines who have conducted research on monuments, political aesthetics and public space more broadly to reflect on the recent political drama surrounding statues and monuments. We seek new perspectives on a plethora of questions: Does the current imperative to topple racist monuments draw from earlier iconoclasms and idol-smashing? If so, how? What might we learn from statues and monuments that have fallen, and occasionally been re-erected, in the past? How should we understand the confrontation between anti-racist politics in the present and the material legacies of racism? How might the reappraisal and destruction of monuments yield to new constructions of collective memory that refuse the erasure of racist pasts? Can memorialization in the future proceed without repeating the sins of monumentalization in the past?
Research Interests: Sociology, Anthropology, Art History, Cultural Heritage, Material Culture Studies, and 11 morePostcolonial Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Memory Studies, Commemoration and Memory, Public Space, Anti-Racism, Decolonial Thought, Protest Movements, Monuments, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Black Lives Matter
Interview with Kristian Petersen about my book, Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Research Interests: Religion, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Religion & the Public Sphere, and 13 moreTurkish and Middle East Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Islam in Turkey, Modern Turkey, Cultural Anthropology, Minorities in Turkey, NGOs (Anthropology), Civil Society, Religious Studies, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Anthropology of Religion
Jeremy Walton’s ethnographic exploration of Muslim civil society organizations in Turkey is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on the politics of religious freedom, civil religion, and faith-based organizations. While... more
Jeremy Walton’s ethnographic exploration of Muslim civil society organizations in Turkey is a welcome contribution to the burgeoning scholarship on the politics of religious freedom, civil religion, and faith-based organizations. While there has been considerable academic interest in public and political forms of Islam in Turkey, a majority of such scholarship has focused on electoral politics or individual religious communities. The heterogeneous field of Muslim civil society, however, remains either unexplored, equated with partisan forms of political Islam, or dismissed as an “opportunity space” for Islamist movements. Muslim Civil Society and the Politics of Religious Freedom in Turkey fills this lacuna by providing an engaging and erudite ethnographic survey of diverse Muslim civil society organizations [CSO] ranging from Sunni religious movements such as the Nur community and Fethullah Gülen’s Hizmet movement to organizations championing religious rights for the Alevis, the largest religious minority in Turkey. These Muslim CSOs are characterized by their antagonism to the Turkish state’s sovereignty over religion, which they question and contest by undertaking religiously inspired projects championing religious diversity.
Research Interests: Middle East Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Civil Society and the Public Sphere, Middle East Anthropology, Turkey, and 29 moreIslamic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Religion in Turkey, Islam in Turkey, Middle East Politics, Secularisms and Secularities, Modern Turkey, Governance and Civil Society, Turkish Islam, Political Islam in Turkey, Minorities in Turkey, Anthropology of Alevism, Political Islam, Turkish politics, Civil Society, Middle East, Islamic Movements and Political Islam, Alevis, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Nationalization of Religion in Turkey, Secularism, Islam and Secularism, Islam in the Public Sphere, Alevi Studies, Islam and Politics, Civil Society Organizations, Islamic Movements in Turkey, resurgence of islam in modern Turkey, and Turkish Islamism
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This second round of CFP is to remind you about the new dates of the Art and State conference and to inform you that the call is still open for a limited number of paper presentations for those who wish to join us in Zagreb this summer.
Research Interests: Art History, Central Europe, Central European history, Yugoslavia, Habsburg Studies, and 15 moreHistory of Art, Political Art, History of Central and Southeastern Europe, Central European Studies, - Architecture history, Art in the former Yugoslavia, History of architecture, Central and East European Studies, Art and Politics, Cultural History of Habsburg Empire 1800-1918, State policy and the arts, Central European Art, The Cultural History of Austria-Hungary, Contemporary Art in Yugoslavia, and Modern architecture in Yugoslavia
Attempts to explore and define in more detail, both diachronically and synchronically, relationships and mutual influences between state bodies and art production, communication, education and reception have for decades formed an... more
Attempts to explore and define in more detail, both diachronically and synchronically, relationships and mutual influences between state bodies and art production, communication, education and reception have for decades formed an important part of numerous explorations in various academic disciplines such as art history, history, anthropology, sociology, education etc. The conference aims to provide insights into the current knowledge and interpretations of these relations from the 18th century to the present day, i.e. from the period in which Europe states went through intense centralization, leading to the growth of their influence on artistic production, public cultural and artistic institutions and education. In all these contexts, the term “state” is taken to stand for a politically organized body of people usually occupying a definite territory and the political organization of such a body of people (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Regardless of whether they were monarchies, republics, federations or centralized states, state bodies played an extremely important role in the production of art and in the institutionalization of knowledge, culture and art in all parts of Europe and throughout the aforementioned period. By fabricating its visual identity, commissioning works from artists whom it considered close, and censoring those segments of art production that it judged potentially dangerous to its survival, the state has largely been shaping the art scene in all parts of Europe. Additionally, states’ cultural and educational policies have influenced (and still does) the shaping of knowledge about the arts and teaching content in the field of art (history) on all educational levels.
The conference therefore welcomes contributions that deal with approaches to interpretation of these phenomena and various topics in the broad field of art history (painting, sculpture, applied arts, graphic design, photography, architecture, urban planning, curricula and study programmes in art history, etc.) but also other humanities disciplines.
Regardless of whether they were monarchies, republics, federations or centralized states, state bodies played an extremely important role in the production of art and in the institutionalization of knowledge, culture and art in all parts of Europe and throughout the aforementioned period. By fabricating its visual identity, commissioning works from artists whom it considered close, and censoring those segments of art production that it judged potentially dangerous to its survival, the state has largely been shaping the art scene in all parts of Europe. Additionally, states’ cultural and educational policies have influenced (and still does) the shaping of knowledge about the arts and teaching content in the field of art (history) on all educational levels.
The conference therefore welcomes contributions that deal with approaches to interpretation of these phenomena and various topics in the broad field of art history (painting, sculpture, applied arts, graphic design, photography, architecture, urban planning, curricula and study programmes in art history, etc.) but also other humanities disciplines.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Art History, Architecture, Nineteenth Century Studies, Central Europe, and 15 moreYugoslavia, Habsburg Studies, Architectural History, Political Art, Art Theory and Politics, Central European Studies, Cultural History of Central Europe, Art in the former Yugoslavia, History of architecture, Central and East European Studies, Art and Politics, Cultural History of Habsburg Empire 1800-1918, Art and Architecture in East-Central Europe, State policy and the arts, and Arts, Politics and Culture
Attempts to explore and define in more detail, both diachronically and synchronically, relationships and mutual influences between state bodies and art production, communication, education and reception have for decades formed an... more
Attempts to explore and define in more detail, both diachronically and synchronically, relationships and mutual influences between state bodies and art production, communication, education and reception have for decades formed an important part of numerous explorations in various academic disciplines such as art history, history, anthropology, sociology, education etc. The conference aims to provide insights into the current knowledge and interpretations of these relations from the 18th century to the present day, i.e. from the period in which Europe states went through intense centralization, leading to the growth of their influence on artistic production, public cultural and artistic institutions and education. In all these contexts, the term “state” is taken to stand for a politically organized body of people usually occupying a definite territory and the political organization of such a body of people (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
Regardless of whether they were monarchies, republics, federations or centralized states, state bodies played an extremely important role in the production of art and in the institutionalization of knowledge, culture and art in all parts of Europe and throughout the aforementioned period. By fabricating its visual identity, commissioning works from artists whom it considered close, and censoring those segments of art production that it judged potentially dangerous to its survival, the state has largely been shaping the art scene in all parts of Europe. Additionally, states’ cultural and educational policies have influenced (and still does) the shaping of knowledge about the arts and teaching content in the field of art (history) on all educational levels.
The conference therefore welcomes contributions that deal with approaches to interpretation of these phenomena and various topics in the broad field of art history (painting, sculpture, applied arts, graphic design, photography, architecture, urban planning, curricula and study programmes in art history, etc.) but also other humanities disciplines.
Regardless of whether they were monarchies, republics, federations or centralized states, state bodies played an extremely important role in the production of art and in the institutionalization of knowledge, culture and art in all parts of Europe and throughout the aforementioned period. By fabricating its visual identity, commissioning works from artists whom it considered close, and censoring those segments of art production that it judged potentially dangerous to its survival, the state has largely been shaping the art scene in all parts of Europe. Additionally, states’ cultural and educational policies have influenced (and still does) the shaping of knowledge about the arts and teaching content in the field of art (history) on all educational levels.
The conference therefore welcomes contributions that deal with approaches to interpretation of these phenomena and various topics in the broad field of art history (painting, sculpture, applied arts, graphic design, photography, architecture, urban planning, curricula and study programmes in art history, etc.) but also other humanities disciplines.
Research Interests: Art History, Nineteenth Century Studies, Central Europe, Central European history, Yugoslavia, and 15 moreHabsburg Studies, Political Art, History of Central and Southeastern Europe, Central European Studies, Yugoslavia (History), Art in the former Yugoslavia, History of architecture, Central and Eastern Europe, Art and Politics, Cultural History of Habsburg Empire 1800-1918, State policy and the arts, Central European Art, The Cultural History of Austria-Hungary, History of Hungary and the Habsburg Monarchy, and Arte Político
Eine Konferenz im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes "Postimperiale Narrative in den zentraleuropäischen Literaturen der Moderne" (gefördert von der Kroatischen Forschungsstiftung)
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Introduction by Jeremy F. Walton, Sasha Newell and Patrick Eisenlohr. In this introduction to our special collection, we discuss the theoretical forebears that inform our guiding concept of “material temporalities” with an eye to the... more
Introduction by Jeremy F. Walton, Sasha Newell and Patrick Eisenlohr. In this introduction to our special collection, we discuss the theoretical forebears that inform our guiding concept of “material temporalities” with an eye to the collection’s impact on contemporary debates in anthropology and beyond. To begin, we situate “material temporalities” in relation to the temporal and material turns that have reoriented anthropology in recent years. In particular, we emphasize the dual property of material temporalities in offering affordances to and constituting forms of recalcitrance for human actors. Following this, we discuss the two orders of time, human and nonhuman, that intersect in the assemblages of material temporalities, as well as a number of key inspirations for our theorization of material temporalities—Walter Benjamin’s notion of messianic time and Michel Foucault’s concept of heterochrony, specifically. This discussion of human and nonhuman times supports our critique of “clock time” and its errant aspiration to an objective material basis for temporality. Following this, we offer an overview of both recent and longstanding anthropologi- cal engagements with temporality and historicity, as well as a summary of recent media studies perspectives on time and materiality, which mount a more radical intervention and critique than most anthropological arguments. We then review anthropological debates over affect and materiality in order to argue for the centrality of temporality and historicity to affective matters. Finally, we summarize the collections’s three major thematic clusters—virtuality and latency, material extensions of phenomenological time, and material futures—with reference to the specific contributions.
Research Interests: Sociology, Epistemology, Affordance Theory, Philosophy of Time, Anthropology of Media, and 15 moreMateriality (Anthropology), Virtuality, Anthropology of Time, Phenomenology of Temporality, Affect (Cultural Theory), Memory and materiality, Temporality (Time Studies), Affordances, Temporality, Materiality, Heterochrony, Historicity, Futurity, Latency, and Temporalities
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In this introduction to our edited volume, Material Afterlives, we specify the interventions and arguments of our collection as a whole. To begin, we reflect on the recent proliferation of “afterlives” as a concept and metaphor within the... more
In this introduction to our edited volume, Material Afterlives, we specify the interventions and arguments of our collection as a whole. To begin, we reflect on the recent proliferation of “afterlives” as a concept and metaphor within the social sciences and humanities, a development that we describe as the “new hauntology.” As we argue, this new hauntology favors the subjective rather than objective aspects of afterlives and consequently neglects questions of materiality. The overarching goal of Material Afterlives is to remedy this neglect. Following this, we examine the contributions and limitations of the concepts of ruin/ruination and waste to the investigation of material afterlives. While the concepts of ruin and waste presuppose a decrease in value in the face of time and change of function, material afterlives, by contrast, accentuate the proliferation of enhanced and unanticipated material values. We then enumerate the implications of our consideration of material afterliv...
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DERYA BAYIR, Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law (Ashgate, 2014). Pp. 314. £75.00 cloth.Minoritization-the process by which certain life-worlds, practices, and groups of people are transformed into a demographic category that is... more
DERYA BAYIR, Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law (Ashgate, 2014). Pp. 314. £75.00 cloth.Minoritization-the process by which certain life-worlds, practices, and groups of people are transformed into a demographic category that is marginal and exceptional to a society at large-is a dark shadow cast by the universalizing project of the modern nation-state. As Benedict Anderson has famously argued, nationalism is a modular form, which migrated rapidly across the globe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. On the Hederian model, nations achieved abstract, ethno-linguistic homogeneity as "imagined communities." This process of articulation and homogenization necessarily involved disavowals and exclusions; the legal and cultural status of the minority is a preeminent effect of this repression of difference by the nation-state. Furthermore, just as every project of nationalism synthesizes both abstract political forms and specific local histories and cultures, so too is minoritization both general and particular. Minorities face comparable obstacles in distinct national contexts, but their dilemmas, forms, and struggles are also necessarily local. Scholars of contemporary Turkey will therefore welcome Derya Bayir's recent monograph. Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law, with enthusiasm. She has written a thorough, passionate study, which diligently attends to the fraught relationship between the law and minority-hood in Turkey.Bayir divides her presentation into two broad sections, one historical and one focused on legislation and case law related to Turkey's minorities. The first several chapters of the book trace the historical precedents for the legal and political treatment of minorities in contemporary Turkey. In her consideration of the reforms of the Tanzimat, she shows how the "legal pluralism" (p. 21) that traditionally characterized the relationship between the Sublime Porte and its Christian and Jewish millets (communities) gave way to an abstract, modern conception of legal equality among all Ottoman citizens. Rather than celebrating the emergence of modem citizenship in the late Ottoman Empire, Bayir emphasizes its problematic relationship to the rise of Turkish nationalism, especially during the mle of the Committee for Union and Progress {Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti). Although she does not cover any substantially new historical ground here-works by Erik Zurcher, Kemal Karpat, §erif Mardin and M. §ukru Hanioglu, among others, have productively mined this same period-her focus on the distinct relationship between the political project of Turkish nationalism and the articulation of modern legal practices in relation to minorities is a welcome addition to late Ottoman historiography.After establishing the Ottoman precedents for the Republican dispensation toward minorities, Bayir turns to the early Republican period and the consolidation of two distinct strategies for the management of minorities: marginalization and assimilation. These two methods correspond to two different types of minorities- the non-Muslim communities recognized in 1923 by the Treaty of Lausanne (Jews and Greek Orthodox and Armenian Christians), on the one hand, and non-Turkish Muslims, on the other. As she writes, "non-Muslim minorities were gradually marginalized, persecuted and expelled to the point of near-elimination and their status as an integral components [,s/c] of the nation was placed under extreme doubt...conversely, Muslim minorities were set apart for assimilation based on a norm of Turkishness (p. 142)." Given their legal enshrinement, Lausanne minorities were frequently subject to extra-legal forms of intimidation and marginalization, especially by economic means. Economic warfare against the Lausanne minorities was often accompanied by events of political terror, such as the "Thrace Incidents" of 1934, which targeted local Jews, and the 6-7 September 1955 pogrom against Istanbul's Greeks (pp. 126 ff. …
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Across the segmented political space of central and southeast Europe, cemeteries speak eloquently of the foreclosed social, religious, and political pasts of empire to those attuned to their vocabulary and cadences. In this intervention,... more
Across the segmented political space of central and southeast Europe, cemeteries speak eloquently of the foreclosed social, religious, and political pasts of empire to those attuned to their vocabulary and cadences. In this intervention, I offer a collage of photographs of tombstones from three imperial World War I cemeteries: the Soldatenfriedhof in Styria, Austria; the Habsburg Naval Cemetery in Pula, Croatia; and, the Zeitenlik Allied War Cemetery in Thessaloniki, Greece. I do so with two aims. First, I hope to explore how these tombstones together form a serendipitous archive of empire’s social worlds in sepulchral form. Secondly, and based on this consideration, I offer a set of theoretical remarks on photography of tombstones more generally. With Roland Barthes’ famous aphorism on the deathly quality of photography in mind--”by attesting that the object has been real, the photograph surreptitiously induces belief that it is alive...but by shifting this reality to the past (...
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... Available at http://www. radikal. com. tr/1999/06/23/turkiye/01gul. html. Accessed 23 June 2009. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1981) The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays (translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist). Austin, TX: University... more
... Available at http://www. radikal. com. tr/1999/06/23/turkiye/01gul. html. Accessed 23 June 2009. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1981) The Dialogic Imagination. Four Essays (translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. ...
Research Interests: Religion, Anthropology, Globalization, Space and Place, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 13 morePolitical Science, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Public Sphere, Turkey, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Modern Turkey, Secularism, Anthropology of Islam, Istanbul, Anthropology of Religion, Routledge, and Religion and Public Sphere
Drawing on research conducted at a mosque in the Croatian port city of Rijeka and an integrated space of worship (a “mosque-cem house”) for Sunni and Alevi Muslims in the Turkish capital of Ankara, this essay traces the divergences... more
Drawing on research conducted at a mosque in the Croatian port city of Rijeka and an integrated space of worship (a “mosque-cem house”) for Sunni and Alevi Muslims in the Turkish capital of Ankara, this essay traces the divergences between discursive practices and spatial practices in relation to infrastructures of religious diversity. After developing a theoretical model based on Michel de Certeau’s distinction between place and space, I examine the shared discourse of interreligious tolerance and pluralism that framed both Rijeka’s New Mosque and Ankara’s mosque-cem house. Following this, I analyze the radically different spatial practices choreographed by the two projects: the spatial “mixing” of distinct religious communities and forms of worship in the case of the mosque-cem house, and the spatial separation and sequestration of Islam in relation to the city and nation at large in the case of the New Mosque. I argue that the contrast between the politicization of the mosquecem ...
Research Interests: Geography, Space and Place, Politics, Religion & the Public Sphere, Turkey, and 14 moreIslamic Studies, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Modern Turkey, Tolerance, Anthropology of Alevism, Balkans, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Western Balkans, Croatia, Anthropology of Islam, Alevi Studies, Religion and Public Life, and Architecture and Public Spaces
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n ABSTRACT: The introduction to this special section foregrounds the key distinction between ‘religious plurality’ and ‘interreligious pluralism’. Building from the example of a recent controversy over an exhibition on shared religious... more
n ABSTRACT: The introduction to this special section foregrounds the key distinction between ‘religious plurality’ and ‘interreligious pluralism’. Building from the example of a recent controversy over an exhibition on shared religious sites in Thessaloniki, Greece, we analyze the ways in which advocates and adversaries of pluralism alternately place minority religions at the center or attempt to relegate them to the margins of visual, spatial, and political fields. To establish the conceptual scaffolding that supports this special section, we engage the complex relations that govern the operations of state and civil society, sacrality and secularity, as well as spectacular acts of disavowal that simultaneously coincide with everyday multiplicities in the shared use of space. We conclude with brief summaries of the four articles that site religious plurality and interreligious pluralism in the diverse contexts of Brazil, Russia, Sri Lanka, and the Balkans.
Research Interests: Religion, Comparative Religion, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Multiculturalism, and 15 morePlace and Identity, Religion and Politics, Space and Place, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Ritual, Religious Pluralism, Memory Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Phenomenology of Space and Place, Tolerance, Pluralism, Philosophy of Religious Pluralism, Religion and Society, Religious Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests: Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, Balkan Studies, and 13 moreCultural Theory, Political Science, Nationalism, Habsburg Studies, Urban Studies, Croatian History, Memory Studies, Empire, Public Space, Croatia, Monuments, Communication and media Studies, and Architecture and Public Spaces
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Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the discourses and... more
Over recent decades, Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in the successor nation-states of former Yugoslavia have taken shape against a variegated political and historical topography. In this article, we examine the discourses and politics surrounding Islamic institutions in four post-Yugoslav nation-states: Kosovo, Macedonia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Our analysis moves in two directions. On the one hand, we illuminate the historical legacies and institutional ties that unite Muslims across these four contexts. As we argue, this institutional history continues to mandate a singular, hegemonic model of Sunni-Hanafi Islam that pre-emptively delegitimizes Muslim communities outside of its orbit. On the other hand, we also attend to the contrasting national politics of Islam in each of our four contexts, ranging from Islamophobic anxiety and suspicion to multiculturalism, from a minority politics of differentiation to hegemonic images of ethno-national religiosity.
Research Interests: Comparative Religion, Space and Place, Balkan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Political Science, and 15 moreIslamic Contemporary Studies, Kosovo, Postsocialism, Religious Pluralism, Islamic Studies, Islamic History, Islam, Southeastern Europe, Religious Studies, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Architecture and Public Spaces, and Anthropology of Religion
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore charitable giving and receiving as a site of social class interaction in Croatia today, particularly in relation to the country’s socialist past and capitalist present.... more
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore charitable giving and receiving as a site of social class interaction in Croatia today, particularly in relation to the country’s socialist past and capitalist present. Design/methodology/approach Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in three charity organisations in Croatia. The reported material is based on participant observation, interviews and informal conversations with organisation members, activists, employees and end users. Findings The authors find that charity activists and recipients of aid occupy distinct but overlapping moral economies in relation to questions of poverty, charity and the role of the state. Originality/value The authors develop a unique perspective on charitable giving and receiving in a context in which memories of socialism shape understandings of the role of the state today vis-à-vis poverty relief.
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Research Interests: History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Ottoman History, and 14 moreCultural Heritage, Habsburg Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Croatian History, Turkey, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Ottoman-Habsburg relations, Empire, Hungary, Suleyman the magnificent, Historical Studies, Zrinski/Zrinyi family, and History Anthropology
In this article, I draw on Pierre Nora’s concept of “sites of memory” to explore the material textures and political effects of neo-Ottomanism in three locations: Miniatürk, a theme park in Istanbul that features scale replicas of many... more
In this article, I draw on Pierre Nora’s concept of “sites of memory” to explore the material textures and political effects of neo-Ottomanism in three locations: Miniatürk, a theme park in Istanbul that features scale replicas of many prominent Ottoman structures; Thessaloniki’s New Mosque, a former place of worship for the syncretic religious community of the dönme; and the Tomb of Gül Baba, a 16th-century Sufi dervish and saint, in Budapest. My exposition moves in two directions. On the one hand, I emphasize how sites of memory frequently serve to bolster dominant, politicized discourses of neo-Ottomanism. On the other hand, I trace how sites of renascent Ottoman memory – especially those outside of Turkey – undermine and contradict the premises of neo-Ottomanism in unanticipated ways. Over the course of my article, I develop the concept of “disciplined historicity” as a method for approaching sites of memory that integrates both historical knowledge and appreciation for the mate...
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Research Interests: Ottoman History, Ottoman Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Turkey, Ottoman Empire, and 15 moreOttoman Balkans, Late Ottoman Period, Modern Turkey, Ottomanism, Ottoman Jewry, Ottoman Arab Provinces, Literary studies, Late Ottoman History, Néo-ottomanism, Young Turks, Historical Studies, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jewish Ottoman History, Non-Muslim Minorities in Late Ottoman Empire, and Die Welt Des Islams
Research Interests: Sociology, Balkan Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Religion & the Public Sphere, Turkey, and 10 moreIslamic Studies, Islam, Anthropology of Turkey, Tolerance, Anthropology of Alevism, Anthropology of the Balkans, Alevism and Sunnism in Turkey, Croatia, Alevi Studies, and Anthropology of Religion
Over the past several years, a number of scholars have diagnosed a crisis in the field of the study of religion. Unlike previous debates within religious studies, this recent crisis has focused not so much on the object of study but on... more
Over the past several years, a number of scholars have diagnosed a crisis in the field of the study of religion. Unlike previous debates within religious studies, this recent crisis has focused not so much on the object of study but on both the relationship of the researcher to his or her subject and the nature of research we as “critical scholars of religion” should conduct. Institutional and professional anxieties over the legitimacy of the field of religious studies within the broader academy have intensified the urgency of this debate. Above all, the dividing line between scientific scholarship and metaphysical speculation is increasingly drawn around the ill-defined notion of critique. As Jose Cabezon has cogently observed, “It is our commitment to a project defined … in terms of criticism, methodological rigor, theory, self-awareness and so forth – that we believe gives us … the wherewithal to clarify the opacities and to unmask the misrecognitions that are [supposedly] endemic to the first-order discourses and practices of religion that are constitutive of both our object and our Other.” The establishment of something called the critical study of religion, as opposed to theological assertion or parochial apologetics, has become the primary justification for the place of scholars of religion within the academy.
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Is Hizmet liberal? The question is intractable both for Hizmet actors and for the Turkish public sphere more broadly. In this essay, I marshal ethnographic research carried out over several years among Hizmet institutions in Istanbul to... more
Is Hizmet liberal? The question is intractable both for Hizmet actors and for the Turkish public sphere more broadly. In this essay, I marshal ethnographic research carried out over several years among Hizmet institutions in Istanbul to shed light on the politics of this question. I examine several characteristic Hizmet institutions in order to argue that Hizmet forges a synthesis between Islamic and liberal discourses and practices. This synthesis unravels dichotomous images of Islam and liberalism as necessarily opposed. In particular, I analyze ethical values such as “positive action” (müspet hareket), “service” (hizmet), and piety (taqwa), as well as initiatives, such as interreligious dialogue (dinler arası diyalog), carried out by Hizmet-affiliated charitable foundations/pious endowments (vakıflar). By way of conclusion, I reevaluate the title question of the article to unpack the dialectical tension embedded between liberal political projects and liberalism as a disciplining ...
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Research Interests: Military History, Anthropology, American Politics, Peace and Conflict Studies, Middle East Studies, and 15 moreHuman Rights, Political Science, Colonialism, Peacekeeping, Middle East Politics, Cultural Anthropology, Empire, Counterinsurgency, Peacebuilding, Imperialism, Human Terrain, Maldives, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Post Conflict Issues, and Post Colonialism
Research Interests: Sociology, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Liberalism, Religion & the Public Sphere, and 15 moreCivil Society and the Public Sphere, Public Sphere, Turkey, Islamic Studies, Islam in Turkey, Islam, Modern Turkey, Political Islam, Philosophy of Religious Pluralism, Civil Society, Religious Studies, Secularism, Anthropology of Islam, American Ethnologist, and Anthropology of Religion
Research Interests: Critical Theory, History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Social Theory, and 15 moreAnthropology, Cultural Heritage, Material Culture Studies, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Theory, Culture, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Memory Studies, Metaphor, Empire, Ambivalence, Historicity, Historical Studies, and History Anthropology
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Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature by Charles D. Sabatos traces the image of the Turk in works of Central European literatures that were written in different languages such as Czech, Slovak, and... more
Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature by Charles D. Sabatos traces the image of the Turk in works of Central European literatures that were written in different languages such as Czech, Slovak, and German from the early modern period to the present day. Sabatos employs the concept of “frontier Orientalism” to trace “[t]he evolution of the Turkish image from a historic threat to a mythical figure” and notes that this evolution played a key role in “the complex construction of modern European identities” (xii). The book is pertinent not only for specialists of Central European literatures but also for historians who work on sources that display complex transcultural relationships such as travel writings. Sabatos’s focus on the Central Europe contests much of the scholarly assumptions on the West that have often shaped earlier works on travel writing in Ottoman and Turkish studies. In particular, Frontier Orientalism demonstrates how current works on Orientalism sometimes generate a simplistic “West vs. Rest” dichotomy. Furthermore, Sabatos’s work provides crucial remarks about the discipline of history as his work builds upon literary critics such as Hayden White who have reflected on the nature of history writing. After providing a brief summary of the book and discussing its contributions to diverse disciplines, this review will end with new avenues of research that Sabatos’s book opens up and other researchers can further explore in depth.
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Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature by Charles D. Sabatos traces the image of the Turk in works of Central European literatures that were written in different languages such as Czech, Slovak, and... more
Frontier Orientalism and the Turkish Image in Central European Literature by Charles D. Sabatos traces the image of the Turk in works of Central European literatures that were written in different languages such as Czech, Slovak, and German from the early modern period to the present day. Sabatos employs the concept of “frontier Orientalism” to trace “[t]he evolution of the Turkish image from a historic threat to a mythical figure” and notes that this evolution played a key role in “the complex construction of modern European identities” (xii). The book is pertinent not only for specialists of Central European literatures but also for historians who work on sources that display complex transcultural relationships such as travel writings. Sabatos’s focus on the Central Europe contests much of the scholarly assumptions on the West that have often shaped earlier works on travel writing in Ottoman and Turkish studies. In particular, Frontier Orientalism demonstrates how current works on...
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Chapter 2 focuses directly on civil Islam and its valorization of interreligious tolerance and pluralism. It begins by describing how two NGOs, one Alevi and one Sunni, champion a shared image of interreligious tolerance. Next, it traces... more
Chapter 2 focuses directly on civil Islam and its valorization of interreligious tolerance and pluralism. It begins by describing how two NGOs, one Alevi and one Sunni, champion a shared image of interreligious tolerance. Next, it traces the convergences and divergences among three Alevi organizations in relation to the discourse of confessional pluralism. Although each of these Alevi institutions comprehends Alevism differently and lobbies the state in distinct ways, they share a conception of civil society and religion in general as primordial, nonpolitical domains. The second section of the chapter examines the ideals of interreligious dialogue and confessional pluralism espoused by Hizmet institutions. In particular, it focuses on the recuperation of the Ottoman ideals of the millet system and the pious foundation (vakıf), which ground practices of confessional pluralism in the historicity of neo-Ottomanism.
Chapter 1 offers a vista over the terrain of public Islam in Turkey. The chapter delineates four public mediations of Islam in contemporary Turkey: statist/bureaucratic Islam, mass Islam, partisan Islam, and consumerist Islam. After an... more
Chapter 1 offers a vista over the terrain of public Islam in Turkey. The chapter delineates four public mediations of Islam in contemporary Turkey: statist/bureaucratic Islam, mass Islam, partisan Islam, and consumerist Islam. After an excursion/excursus in Istanbul’s Taksim Square, it focuses on the Directorate of Religious Affairs and its statist vision of Islam as homogeneous and incontestable. Following this, it describes a rally organized by a right-wing Islamist party in Turkey in protest of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. Next, it considers the increasing sway that partisan Islam and the AKP (in Turkish, the Justice and Development Party/Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi) have on public images of Islam generally. Finally, the chapter concludes with an interview with the editors of a prominent Muslim fashion magazine, which is also a preeminent expression of consumerist Islam.
Chapter 3 focuses on the spatial practices that emerge within and define Muslim civil society. It begins with two excursions/excurses that illustrate the state’s spatial practices of Islam: museification, as represented by the museum and... more
Chapter 3 focuses on the spatial practices that emerge within and define Muslim civil society. It begins with two excursions/excurses that illustrate the state’s spatial practices of Islam: museification, as represented by the museum and mausoleum of Hacı Bektaş Veli, and institutionalized homogenization, as represented by a Friday sermon in a mosque. The remainder of the chapter elaborates three characteristic spatial practices of Muslim civil society: theological classes, academic-style conferences, and charitable service in a neoliberal environment. The analysis of these ethnographic contexts accentuates the emergence of Muslim civil society as a domain in which activities that were once monopolized by the state—education, mass media, healthcare—are now carried out by nonstate actors.