Imagination, as an analytical angle, deserves our attention as a political and social force that informs and connects masses, crosses borders, and manifests new socialities. The podcast series will host influential scholars, intellectuals, and artists who study and shape the imagination of Turkey on a global scale from various critical directions.
The topics in the following months will include discussions on democracy in Turkey, the politics of religious differences at the border, and the limits of ethnographic research methods.
'Imagining Turkey' is co-hosted by the project PI Dr. Sertaç Sehlikoglu (UCL), M. Zișan Köker (LUC), and Hazal Aydın (BU). This series is sponsored by the European Research Council, and hosted in collaboration with the UCL’s Institute for Global Prosperity and the Middle East Centre.
Introductory episode
In this very first introductory episode, we are briefly talking about the scholarly intentions of the ERC funded Takhayyul Project, why we think it is necessary to have a closer look at imagination as an analytical tool, and finally, why we want to focus on Turkey and imagination at the intersection of these two in particular.
Cemil Aydin - The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History
Join us in our inaugural episode as we delve into the rich tapestry of Turkey's history, its current dynamics, and the prospects for its future with the esteemed Professor Cemil Aydin from the University of North Carolina. In this engaging conversation, we center our discussion around Prof. Aydin's illuminating book, "The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History."
Imagining Turkey from the Balkans: A conversation with Prof Maria Todorova
In this episode, we are hosting Professor Maria Todorova from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to revisit her illuminating book 'Imagining The Balkans.' Professor Todorova specializes in Eastern Europe, particularly the Balkans in the modern period, focusing on historical demography, nationalism, socialism, and post-communism. Her work has had a major influence on the study of the Balkans and Orientalism as interconnected subjects and project.
Thinking differently about the World: Before the West with Prof. Ayse Zarakol
In this episode, we host Prof Ayse Zarakol from University of Cambridge and talk about her fascinating book "Before The West".
Imagining Turkey through cartoons: Özge Samanci and graphic novels
In this episode, we host Dr. Özge Samanci from Northwestern University - School of Communication. We talk about her latest work "Evil Eyes Sea", as well as how she started her career and what her future projects are.
About the project
TAKHAYYUL is a collaborative research project that will ethnographically excavate the imaginative forces in the formation of populist religious aspirations in the interconnected geographies recently coined as the Balkan-to-Bengal complex - namely the Balkans, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Such political aspirations provide its followers with a wide range of historical references, religious cosmologies, nationalist feelings and other affective and imaginative registers; this is best represented by the concept of takhayyul (a theory of imagination).
The Institute for Global Prosperity’s ERC-funded TAKHAYYUL project will develop an extensive and comparative formulation of the concept to set the basis for an anthropology of imagination and expand anthropological knowledge on religious politics by exploring the historical, ethical and aesthetic aspects. This project seeks to contribute to global prosperity by offering a fresh perspective that does not reproduce the tropes on irrationality. Instead, it is designed to provide a sound theoretical ground upon which to delineate the ways populist forms of religious politics forge imaginative landscapes beyond the borders of nation-states.
Project website: www.takhayyulproject.com
Project lead: Dr Sertaç Sehlikoglu