News - Voyvoda Street Lectures 2004-2005

A. ECONOMIC HISTORY LECTURES

First Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 p.m.

A journey across time through the struggle for global dominance.... The theme this season, for the series ongoing since 2000, is "Globalization: Past and Present".

6 April 2005 - Soli Özel
Globalization and the Future of International Relations
The end of the cold war caused a slight tremor in the theory of international relations. The end of time, wars between civilisations were proclaimed, it was argued that during the period of globalization the state as an actor would lose its power and influence and boundaries would disappear. September 11 and America 's response to it brought forth the necessity of rethinking these subjects. Soli Özel will discuss how a view peculiar to a globalising world will be developed despite the fact that the position of the state maintains its importance.

4 May 2005 - Prof. Nurhan Yentürk.
Globalization and the Economy of Turkey : What Can be Done?
To reduce the instability and turmoil created by international financial trends is it necessary to wait for the economic policies that will be produced by international coordination? Or is it possible for regional governments to apply well planned and effective policies in response to these problems? What are the methods and policies governments can use in this phase of globalisation in order to support the accumulation and balanced distribution?

1 June 2005 - Assoc. Prof. Izak Atiyas
Globalization and Local Government Reform
Over the past 10-15 years local government reform has been holding an important place on the agenda of developed countries and countries that are still in the process of development. One reason for this is the spreading conviction that the state's traditional organizational structure and operating form is insufficient, and the other reason stems from the belief that superior forms of organizational structure are possible. Topics that are to be scrutinised are what local government reform means, the weaknesses in Turkish local government, the relations between local government and politics, local government problems that have arisen recently, and reform suggestions.

B. ISTANBUL LECTURES

Second Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 p.m.

A fresh look at the city we've lived in for years but perhaps still know so little about...

13 April 2005 - Turgay Tuna
Once Upon a Time Bakirköy
The Hebdomon of Byzantium, also known as Makri Khora or Makro Khori. The famous St. John the Baptist Church where some emperors were crowned on their ascendance to the throne, the Surp Asdvazadzin Armenian Church built in the Makriköy district centuries later, Çarsi Mosque, the Amine Hatun Mosque of the architect Kemalettin, the French Church, Istanbul Street, today's Psychiatric Hospital that was transformed from the Resadiye Barracks to Emraz-i Akliye ve Asabiye...Cenap Sehabettin, Ahmet Rasim, Tamburaci Osman and Halit Hakki Bakir who have all dwelt in Bakirköy...

11 May 2005 - Dr. Deniz Esemenli
The "Bosporus Civilization" and Its Architecture
The Ottoman who was the last heir to the Mediterranean world and creator of a magnificent civilization, leaving his traditional settlement area within the city walls of Istanbul from the 18th century onwards, developed an original Bosporus and Golden Horn residential architecture. The richest and most continuous application of shore line settlement seen in the European towns founded in particular at the sides of canals and rivers and also in Byzantine residences and palaces has been observed in Ottoman Istanbul. A great number of coastal palaces and gardens belonging to the dynasty on the Bosporus and Golden Horn , also paving the way to the formation of a contemporary city fabric, have formed a civilian higher architecture parallel to the enlightenment in the Western world. This baroque and fragile aristocratic life style blending with nature in the best possible way, became one of the most original and aesthetic phenomena the history of civilisation gained from the Ottoman Empire which created a magnificent monarchic tradition in western royal societies.

8 June , 2005 - Mert Sandalci
Dream Stations
This is the story of the Kagithane- Kemerburgaz-Agaçli-Çiftalan narrow gauge railway line, which was commissioned from 1914-1916 to pull coal to Istanbul from the lignite mines on the Black Sea . A film presentation and talk on the subject of the laying of the line whose purpose was to meet the coal requirements of the Ottoman Fleet and the Silahtaraga Power Plant, its being discarded after the war and its subsequent dismantlement...

C. MUSIC AND POLITICS

Third Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 p.m.

A new series exploring the interaction of music and politics across the generations.

20 April 2005 - Aykut Köksal
The 1950 Transformation in Turkey and its Reflection on Music Production
The 1950 transformation forms an important breaking point in Turkey , not only in political history, but also in the production of art. With this transformation the nationalist culture policy of the centre would lose its dominance and an atmosphere of growing freedom would be reflected on all cultural production. The two foremost representatives of music during this period in which 1950s Modernism appeared with a common rhetoric in all the disciplines of art are Ilhan Usmanbas and Bülent Arel. The music of Usmanbas and Arel shows both a break from the nationalist music of the first generation composers of the Republic and captures a synchronism with the West.

18 May 2005 - Hasan Uçarsu
Stalin and Music: The Shostakovich Phenomenon
In this lecture the policies on music applied in the Soviet Union during the Stalin period will be considered together with Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich's life and production. To what extent a controlled aesthetic understanding can be determining in a country's music when the leader and party apply their own expectations, the state directing and shaping art with the aim of keeping art under government control will be expounded. The extent to which a highly creative composer like Shostakovich had to make concessions from his artistic identity and whether or not he compromised under such limiting conditions and how he created himself will be discussed.

D. OBJECTS AND RITUALS

Fourth Wednesday of each month 6:30-8:30 p.m.

A series focusing on the involvement of art in everyday life and on the interaction of culture with perceived reality.

27 April 2005 - Nezih Basgelen
Beliefs and Rituals in the Anatolia of the Roman Age
Besides the polytheistic state religion, respect and interest were also shown in the religious beliefs of the local cultures of Anatolia during Roman sovereignty. For instance, respect was paid to the "Great Mother" of Anatolia at the temples at Aizonai, Ankara , Antiokheia (Yalvaç) as well as to the religion of the Roman state. Moreover mystery religions such as Kybele whose origin was in Anatolia and Mithras had influenced the whole of the empire as far as the capital Rome . How the nature in which we live constituted the mysteries of the spiritual world of the archaic ages will be expounded in the conference where the geography and colourfulness of beliefs in the Anatolia of the Roman age will be demonstrated through select examples.

25 May 2005 - Ersu Pekin
Where there is a Wedding there are Musical Instruments
From the musical instruments at Hitite weddings in Anatolia to Inner Asia in the 15th century, from the sema of the Mevlevi in the 13th century to the erotic dances of the 16th century... A glance from the 21st century at the musical instruments used in the musical shows with dancing at the circumcision festivals of the princes of the 18th century... The logic of custom makes musical instruments imperative. When is what we join in or observe a religious ceremony, and when is it entertainment? The instrument is the same both when it wants to call on God, and when it entertains, it does not change. Perhaps we would like to think it made a different sound; perhaps it really has made a different sound this time. But the ney has always remained the same; even though the two small drums have sometimes been the gypsies' nakkare and sometimes the mevlevi's kudüm-i serif , it is a thin layer of leather that is covered over two copper bowls. It is we, the people, who add a meaning to this matter.

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