THURSDAYS 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Jan. 29, Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26, March 5, 12, 26, April 9, and April 16, 2015

Is Turkey in Europe or the Middle East? Is this a question of geography, history, politics, or culture? This course explores all those sides of Turkey since the late 19th-century empire, focusing on the republican era after 1923. Turkey is one of the world’s most populous Muslim countries, a parliamentary democracy, a NATO member, and a candidate to join the European Union. The country is also not a postcolony--the Republic of Turkey emerged directly from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. The seminars will be presented by Dr. Silverstein, as well as other UA experts on Turkey. Each week centers on a theme, including nationalism, modernization, gender, religion and secularism, identity, minorities, the AK Party, political economy, the state, and the politics of history.

BRIAN SILVERSTEIN is Associate Professor in the School of Anthropology.  He is the author of Islam and Modernity in Turkey. His current research is on Turkey’s European Union integration reforms, particularly the politics of statistics. He is the inaugural director of the Arizona Center for Turkish Studies at the University of Arizona.