Spring 2019

Turkey: From Ataturk to Erdogan

Listed in: Asian Languages and Civilizations, as ASLC-493  |  History, as HIST-493

Faculty

Monica M. Ringer (Section 01)

Description

(Offered as HIST 493 [ME/TC/TE/TS] and ASLC 493) Mustafa Kemal "Ataturk" looms large in Turkish historical memory. As a national hero and Turkey’s first President from 1923 until his death in 1938, Ataturk symbolizes a shift from empire to republic, from subject to citizen. He is remembered for promoting the secularization, democratization and Westernization of Turkey. Turkey’s current President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has now served as head of the Turkish Republic for nearly as long as Ataturk. Supporters point to Erdogan's policies of democratization as the fulfillment of Ataturk’s intentions, while his opponents argue that Erdogan is deliberately dismantling the foundations of Ataturk’s secular and western-oriented republic. This seminar focuses on how these two leaders are variously imagined and claimed, as a window onto contemporary debates surrounding secularism and the place of religion, nationalism and minority rights, the tensions between authoritarianism and democracy, and the ways in which competing visions of the Ottoman past surround alternative constructions of Turkey’s future. Two course meetings per week.

Limited to 18 students. Not open to first-year students. Preference given to students who have taken HIST 191. Spring semester. Professor Ringer.

If Overenrolled: Preference given to students who have taken The Modern Middle East (HIST 191)

HIST 493 - L/D

Section 01
M 02:00 PM - 03:20 PM CHAP 119
W 02:00 PM - 03:20 PM CHAP 119

ISBN Title Publisher Author(s) Comment Book Store Price
The New Sultan: Erdogan and the Crisis of Modern Turkey Cagaptay, Sonor Amherst Books TBD
Becoming Turkish: Nationalist Reforms and Cultural Negotiations in Early Republican Turkey 1923-1945 Yilmaz, Hale Amherst Books TBD

These books are available locally at Amherst Books.

Offerings

2024-25: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Fall 2012, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2021