for the conference:

EDUCATION IN THE CONTEXT OF IDEOLOGY AND POWER
Turkish University Reform and the Jewish Academicians in Perspective

Atatürk Institute of Boğaziçi University, Goethe Institute-Istanbul and Österreichisches Kulturforum Istanbul are calling for scholarly papers to be presented at the conference to take place at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul on October 31 - November 1, 2013. The meeting aims at revisiting the Turkish University Reform of 1930s and the admission of Jewish academicians from Nazi-Germany as well as Austria and Hungary at the occasion of the 80th anniversary of their arrival.

The welcoming of Jewish professors to Turkey is part of a well-established discourse, which emphasize the republican endeavors to ensure the transfer of modern sciences and disciplines to new Turkey while pointing at the humanitarian policies of the state of the time. Research on the Turkish University Reform put in practice through the employment of exiled academicians mostly focused on the large-scale academic impact observable in the establishment of whole disciplines, curricula and scholarly traditions. As for the humanitarian policy, popular historical novels and documentaries stress Turkey as a safe haven for the expelled Jews of Europe. Today the official version of Republican history is subject to criticism. Interrogations regarding the Turkish University Reform until know brushed under the carpet come to the fore and the cliché “Turkey as a safe haven for Jews” is challenged through recent research. The conference will thus aim at addressing the following issues:

What are the relations between the Turkish University Reform of 1930s and the implementation of a new national identity and the construction of a new historical narrative?
To which degree Turkey’s policy mirrors the admission of expelled Jewish academicians towards Jewish refugees of the time and towards the Jewish community in Turkey?
What are the reasons for the silence of highly politicized exiles-academicians regarding the political climate in those days’ Turkey? Why had the large majority of exiled professors left Turkey at the first occasion for other countries?
What remains today from the ground-setting academic work of that period and what are the reasons for the continuing flourishing of some academic branches and the decline of others?

The conference will be accompanied by an exhibition which would consist of the works of these academicians, including university textbooks, material used at the university, pictures. Contributions in this kind would also be welcome. For more information on the presentation of these materials please consult Eren Özalay by email to eren.ozalay@boun.edu.tr

♣ The meeting will be held in Istanbul at Boğaziçi University;
♣ Working languages of the meeting will be English and Turkish;
♣ In order to reserve time for Q&A sessions and discussions, speakers will have 20 minutes for their presentation;
♣ Transportation and accommodation expenses of participants from outside Istanbul will be covered if institutions they belong to cannot ensure coverage;
♣ The meeting is organized from an interdisciplinary perspective;
♣ Researchers who would like to participate in this meeting should submit a 250-word abstract of their papers, along with a CV to eren.ozalay@boun.edu.tr no later than April 30, 2013.