Global Partners Semester in Turkey Program Fall Term 2006: learning in a land of contrasts

Global PartnersSemester in Turkey Program

Fall Term 2006:learning in a land of contrasts

Ortakoy mosque, Istanbul

17th-c. Sultan Ahmet mosque, Istanbul

old

European Istanbul from the Asian shore

new

Underground 6th-c AD (Byzantine) cisterns, Istanbul

underground

Aya Sofia, Istanbul

ethereal

On top of the 4th-c. AD city walls, Istanbul

exploration

14th-c. AD Church of St. Savior in Chora, Istanbul

15th-c. BC Egyptian Obelisk of Thutmosis III in the Hippodrome, Istanbul

introspection

Rumeli Hisar, Ottoman fortress on the Bosphorus, Istanbul

walls

bridges

The Golden Horn, Istanbul

passion

a Besiktas soccer game, Inönü Stadium, Istanbul

The Program begins in Istanbul, a city over 2,500 years old that joins Europe and Asia:

- 3 weeks at Istanbul Technical University (ITU)

- Turkish lessons

- the ‘core-course’: introductory lectures on Turkish history, economics, politics, international relations, culture, art, and religion by ITU professors

- field trips on afternoons and Saturdays to sites and museums across Istanbul (also part of the core-course)

- optional trips to a whirling dervish dance performance, a super league soccer match, etc.

- ITU students serve as liaisons to help students acclimate

- A faculty director accompanies the students throughout their stay (in 2006: Professor Daniel Shaw of Colorado College)

2006 Faculty Director

Daniel Shaw, PhD, is visiting professor of religion at The Colorado College. Professor Shaw teaches courses in Islamic Studies and in Christianity. He specializes in issues of cultural interchange between Islamic and Christian societies. He is particularly interested in the intellectual transmission of Hellenistic philosophy that occurred as Islam encountered the Byzantine Christian world.

Dr. Shaw has lived in and traveled throughout Jordan and Egypt, and in the spring of 2006 will be living in Damascus and exploring the cultures of Syria and the Lebanon.

ITU dorm-room

ITU classroom

19th-c Sultan’s palace of Dolmabahce

The gate where Mehmet II entered in 1453

The city is an

education

ITU: Gumussuyu Campus

view of the Bosphorus from ITU dorm-room

Istanbul Technical University was founded in 1773

Taksim Square and Istiklal Street, Istanbul

Atatürk, founder of the modern Turkish Republic, remembered during ‘Victory Day’ on Taksim Square

The Program continues with a 7-day trip along the West Coast.

Visits may include: the WWI battlefield of Gallipoli, the citadel of Troy, the Greek towns of Assos and Priene, the Hellenistic city of Pergamon, an oracle of Apollo at Claros, the Roman metropolis of Ephesos, the burial-place of St. John and the ‘House of Mary’, the Lydian capital of Sardis, the burial-mounds of Bin-Tepe, the Phrygian settlement of Midas City, as well as Alevi shrines, 19th-c. Greek towns, and dramatic landscapes.

• Gallipoli• Troy

Assos •• Akçay

• Pergamon

• Sardis

• Midas City

Claros •• Ephesos• Priene

Gallipoli Peninsula, 1915: a million men fought here; half of them became casualties of the Great War

Troy, ca. 1200 BC: another war, another time, that begat the tradition of Western epic poetry

(not the actual Trojan horse…)

Village life

Urbanism going back 10,000 years

Modern town:The village of Sirince, with its traditional Greek houses and incongruous satellite dishes

Ancient metropolis: a busy Roman street in Ephesos, with the local library at one end

Religious diversity: The monument at Akçay to Sarıkız, ‘the blonde girl’, a local legend whose empty tomb is venerated by followers of the Alevi sect of Islam

Religious diversity:The ‘House of Mary’ at Ephesos: a fascinating blend of Christian and Turkish cult traditions

‘wishing wall’: tying bits of cloth to a tree as a wish or a prayer may go back to the shamanistic traditions of Turks in their homeland of Central Asia

The late-Roman house

Vanished leaders:The burial mounds of Lydian kings and nobles at Bin-Tepe. The largest is 350 m. in diameter and 70 m. high.

Vanished civilizations:The acropolis tunnel and a Phrygian inscription on the shrine of mother-goddess Cybele at Midas City

Vanished cities:A corridor in one of the dozens of underground cities in Cappadocia; here a mill-stone is ready to block off the passage. Some cities are more than 8 stories deep and could accommodate up to 10,000 people

The Program continues in Ankara, capital of modern Turkey:

- students enroll at either of these élite universities, located adjacent to each other in the hills southwest of Ankara: • Bilkent University

• Middle East Technical University (METU)

- classes at Bilkent or METU are taught in English

- students participate in an orientation program at METU or Bilkent

- Turkish lessons continue

- the core-course continues once-a-week as a seminar with the resident faculty director

- additional trips within and around Ankara, such as to Cappadocia

- local students serve as liaisons to help students acclimate

- Turkish roommates in the dorms the citadel, Ankara

Bilkent

METU

MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY (METU)

METU

shopping center

BILKENT UNIVERSITY

BILKENT

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/

For more information, or to apply, visit your International Center or go to:

http://www.global-partners.org/turkey/studyabroad/