Lecture | LUCIS What's New?! Series
Revolutionary Historiography: How Leftist Debated the Historical Sociology of the Ottoman Empire in Cold War Turkey
- Date
- Thursday 16 May 2024
- Time
- Serie
- What's New?! Spring Lecture Series 2024
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.48
What is Turkey’s mode of production? Does Turkey’s social structure diverge from that of the West? Will workers or intellectuals be the vanguard of the socialist struggle in Turkey? These questions sparked significant debates among the Turkish left during the Cold War. These debates led to investigations into the historical sociology of the Ottoman Empire and gave rise to political theoretisation based on historical trajectory of Turkey from empire to republic. In this lecture, I will elucidate the debates conducted by leftists in Cold War Turkey regarding the historical sociology of the Ottoman Empire, contextualising these debates within the rivaling political agendas of various leftist factions.
Halil Akkurt
Halil Akkurt obtained his PhD from Yıldız Technical University, specialising in the Modern Turkish History. He authored Debates on Ottoman Social Structure among Turkish Left 1960-1980 and served as the editor for Political and Intellectual Portraits from Turkey, both written in Turkish. He was honoured with the Young Social Scientists Award (2019) by the Turkish Social Sciences Association and received the International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2023) from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. Currently holding the position of associate professor at Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University, he is a visiting researcher at the Leiden Institute of Area Studies.