AHRC OTTOMAN COSMOPOLITANISM PROJECT

IMPACT EVENT on 29/11 at BIRKBECK COLLEGE: 

MASTERCLASS & STORYTELLING PERFORMANCE

I am very pleased to organise our next impact event which will include a masterclass  led by theorist of postmemory, Marianne Hirsch (Professor, Columbia University) and archivist/creator of aka Kurdistan, Susan Meiselas (Magnum photographer) on the topic of transmedial/transcultural Ottoman memories and a Storytelling performance and Roundtable discussion to explore the importance of oral history for displaced communities in the Middle-East.  

The performance will be by Kurdish Dengbej , Suna Alan who will sing tales from collective memories from ex-Ottoman minorities including Armenian, Kurdish and Sephardi. Dengbej, a tradition of expressing the history and struggle of its people, played a vital role in transferring oral histories to new generations.

For further information and to book via Eventbrite:

Website :   http://ottomancosmopolitanism.wordpress.com/
Twitter   :  @Ottoman_Cosmo

CURATING EXHIBITION: 

EAST AND WEST : VISUALISING THE OTTOMAN CITY (6-30 June)

 

It is all finally coming together after months of paperwork and liaising, the catalogue and publicity are being printed and artworks are at the framer ( Adrian at Possible Frames, totally gets your concept). It has been a very enjoyable experience to work with artists Aikaterini Gegisian, Paris Petridis and the Ottoman team. Matt Emmins did also a beautiful design job on all our publicity and catalogue.

Only 10 days away, the exhibition will open on Friday June 6 (6-9 pm) with a performance by Alev Adil. More events for your diary - all free:

Friday 20 June, 6 - 9 pm

Artists’ Talks and Roundtable with Shoair Mavlian, Tate Modern, and Reem Akl, Arab Foundation for the Image
Thursday 26 June, 7 - 9 pm
Roundtable with Ruba Asfahani, Arab British Centre; Bea Lewkowicz, Sephardi Voices UK and Nouritza Matossian, Armenian Institute

Venue : Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD

Opening Times : Mon-Fri 9am – 9 pm & Sat 9am – 5pm

Website: http://ottomancosmopolitanism.wordpress.com/exhibition

Workshop #3 : Visualising the Ottoman City : then and now

Ottoman Past, Present Cities : Cosmopolitanism and Transcultural Memories AHRC Research Network

Friday 28th March 2014 / Birkbeck, University of London 

The workshop will address some of the representational issues that arise from this pivotal historical moment in the visual culture of the empire to question the possibility of a multi-vocal cosmopolitanism emerging out of these images. Parallel to this the workshop will address the visual ‘archive fever’ that is currently sweeping the ex-Ottoman cities and the dialogue that could be initiated between the visual ottoman pasts and present conflicts in the Middle East thus highlighting the role that contemporary artistic interventions can play in transgressing present nationalisms in the area. 

Speakers :   Wendy M. K. Shaw, Vazken Khatchig Davidian, Gabriel Koureas, Laura Carderera and Yael Friedman

For a full programme with abstracts, please visit our website: http://ottomancosmopolitanism.wordpress.com/events/research-events/

Further information and updates to be found on:
twitter:     https://twitter.com/Ottoman_Cosmo
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OttomanCosmopolitanismNetwork?bookmark_t=page

Ottoman Workshop # 2

Ottoman Past, Present Cities : Cosmopolitanism and Transcultural Memories AHRC Research Network

Workshop #2 : Ottoman Memories: Transculturalism and Empires in Comparison’

Friday 1st November 2013 / Birkbeck, University of London  

I am the visual advisor for this project and will be curating the exhibition which will take place at the same as the conference in late June.

This workshop will focus on the following topic : Overlapping historically with other empires (British, French, Spanish, Hapsburg) and geographically abutting them, can the Ottoman Empire be studied in isolation?  What do we learn about Empires in comparison?
Speakers :   Sami Zubaida, Jay Prosser, John McLeod and Claire Launchbury

While space is limited, the event is open and free of charge. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

Further information to be found on:
website:   http://ottomancosmopolitanism.wordpress.com/
twitter:     https://twitter.com/Ottoman_Cosmo
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OttomanCosmopolitanismNetwork?bookmark_t=page

Ottoman Cosmopolitanism Events

The Ottoman Cosmopolitanism Network in conjunction with the IGRS ( Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies) present an afternoon of dialogue:

Saturday 22 June, 2013; 10.30am – 13.00; I.G.R.S.; Room 246, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Event organiser and chair: Dr Colette Wilson, University of Westminster,

Discussant: Dr Jay Prosser, University of Leeds

Professor Sahar Hamouda, University of Alexandria, Egypt, will present a paper entitled: “Memory and Space: Oral Narrative of a pre-1948 Jerusalemite Family.” Sahar Hamouda’s paper is based on her family memoir, Once Upon a Time in Jerusalem, which is based on her life in Jerusalem before the Nakba/foundation of Israel.

Dr Gabriel Koureas, Birkbeck College, University of London, will present a paper entitled: “Curating Ottoman Memories: Klitsa Antoniou’s The Persistence of the Image and Parallelotopias.

 

Official 'Ottoman' Workshop Launch

Ottoman Pasts, Present Cities: 
Cosmopolitanism and Transcultural Memories AHRC Research Network

Official Workshop Launch at Birkbeck on June 21, 2013:

“How was the Ottoman Empire Transcultural?”

This workshop will focus on the relevance of the legacy of the Ottoman Empire to contemporary debates surrounding East/West relations, multiculturalism, and alternative models of empire and nationalism. 

 Free event - Further information to be found on website and twitter: 

http://ottomancosmopolitanism.wordpress.com/ 

https://twitter.com/Ottoman_Cosmo 

This will be the official launch of our project and the first of three workshops before the conference and exhibition take place - the dates and titles of the forthcoming workshops are : 

Workshop # 2 : Ottoman Memories across the Disciplines - 01/11/2013

Workshop # 3 : Visualising the Ottoman City - 28/03/2014 

Do forward to anyone you think may be interested and sign up for regular updates if you wish ! 

AHRC Award : Ottoman Pasts, Present Cities

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Ottoman Pasts, Present Cities: 
Cosmopolitanism and Transcultural Memories

Leeds University and Birkbeck College 

(January 2013 – June 2014) :

I will be the visual advisor for this project working with my colleagues: Dr. Jay Prosser (Main investigator / University of Leeds), Dr. Gabriel Koureas (University of London, Birkbeck) and Dr. Colette Wilson (Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London). We have just heard that we been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for a Networking Scheme and I will be posting more information on my blog in the near future.

This is brief summary of  the project : 

 'The cities of the Ottoman Empire were multiple, multicultural and are at once heavily memorialised and contemporarily relevant.  Our research on ex-Ottoman cities contributes to the Translating Cultures theme by travelling from the present back to the past cosmopolitan city-worlds of the Empire; by a focus on transcultural memories, which involves comparative analysis of the exchanges between different Ottoman city cultural groups; and by an interdisciplinary methodology.  The cosmopolitan memories of the Ottoman past have much to teach us about our present multicultural cities.'