Religion, Politics and Nationalism in Contemporary Turkey
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Abstract
Turkey is at a crossroads. Under the Islam-rooted AK Party that has been in power for more than a decade, Turkey has been transformed in both positive and negative ways, modernizing, globalizing, and fostering entirely new ways of being Turkish and being Muslim. Since 2011, however, the country has begun to slide into a one-man autocracy beset with corruption allegations and all-out war between the Sunni AKP and its former Sunni ally, the Hizmet movement. The government has begun to dismantle democratic institutions and听enormous tensions are building.
Speaker Bio
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Jenny White听is a professor of anthropology and director of undergraduate studies at Boston University. Her research focuses on Turkish politics, with interests including political Islam, civil society, and ethnic identity. Her most recent book,听Muslim Nationalists and The New Turks, examines how contemporary Turkish nationalism and Islam intersect to produce a new conception of Turkish national identity. She is also the author of听Islamic Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics听补苍诲听Money Makes Us Relatives: Women鈥檚 Labor in Urban Turkey, as well as three critically acclaimed historical novels set in nineteenth-century Istanbul. White is a former president of the Turkish Studies Association and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including from the Social Science Research Council, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation. She earned a B.A. from the City University of New York, an M.A. from Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey) and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Event Photos
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BU anthropology professor Jenny White speaking about religion, politics and nationalism in Turkey.
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Photos by MTS photography
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Further Reading
Mustafa Akyol,听听(New York: Norton, 2013).
Philip Dorroll, 鈥溾��,鈥澨�Journal of the American Academy of Religion听82:4 (December 2014): 1033-1069.
Dexter Filkins, 鈥�,鈥澨�New Yorker,听March 12, 2012.
Fethullah Gulen, 鈥�,鈥澨�New York Times,听February 3, 2015.
Suzy Hansen, 鈥�,鈥澨�New Republic,听November 10, 2010.
Cinar Kiper, 鈥�,鈥澨�Atlantic,听April 5, 2013.
Jenna Krajeski, 鈥�,鈥澨�New Yorker,听January 27, 2012.
Nate Lavey, 鈥�,鈥澨�New Yorker,听February 14, 2014.
Ahmet T. Kuru and Alfred Stepan, ed.,听听(New York: Columbia University Press, 2012).
Iren Ozgur,听ed.,听听(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).
Philip Shishkin, 鈥�,鈥澨�Wall Street Journal,听March 30, 2007.
Yuskel Sezgin, 鈥�?鈥澨�Washington Post,听November 8, 2014.
Semiha Topal, 鈥�,鈥澨�International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society听25 (2012): 1-14.
Berna Turam,听听(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007).
Ufuk Ulutas, 鈥�,鈥澨�Middle Eastern Studies听46:3 (May 2010): 389-399.
Jenny White,听听(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012).
Jenny White, 鈥�,鈥澨�National Interest听10:4 (March/April 2015).
Jenny White, 鈥�,鈥澨�Current History听113 (December 2014): 356-361.
In the News
Hundreds of Turkish soldiers recently crossed the border into Syria to protect听, the grandfather of Ottoman Empire founder Osman I, from attack by the Islamic State. Turkey鈥檚 veneration of its Ottoman heritage has contributed to a growing strain of nationalism in Turkish politics, which听Jenny White will discuss at the Boisi Center听on听Wednesday, March 25.
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