Date: April 28, 2016 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: D’Angelo Center room 310
Refreshments will be served.
Straddling the geography of both Europe and Asia, Turkey has long been at the intersection of history, politics, culture, and faith.
Modern Turkey is a populous, highly-developed, secular democracy, a NATO ally, and an important and influential regional power. It is also a temporary refuge for the majority of Christian and Muslim refugees fleeing Syria, as well as migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other countries.
This migration crisis, along with other concurrent geopolitical, religious, and social factors shows that Turkey is currently at a critical crossroads that has relevance and implications that will affect the world as a whole.
Are you interested in learning more about what is happening in Turkey at the moment?
Join us on April 28 for an informational workshop featuring two Turkish experts and SJU faculty from various disciplines who have traveled to Turkey as guests of the Turkish Cultural Center of Queens.
Among the topics to be discussed:
- Modern Turkey’s role in today’s world;
- Current crises in Turkey: Political shifts, terrorist bombings, Kurdish unrest, refugees and human migration issues;
- Recent government pressure on the press: the Zaman newspaper takeover and other incidents;
- Peacebuilding through Education: The Hizmet movement, the Peace Islands Institute, and interfaith dialog.
Featured Expert Speakers:
Fatih Esenboga, PhD Research Fellow, Social and Educational Affairs, Peace Islands Institute, New York. Fatih Esenboga is an educator with 18 years of experience. From 1997 to 2006 he taught English Language in private and public schools. Esenboga started his academic studies in 2005. He holds an MA degree in English Language and Literature and a Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature. His dissertation, Two Ways of Seeing India in the Travelogues of Kemalist Orientalists and Traditionalists, is about the travelogues written by Turkish writers who visited pre-partitioned India during the early republican period of Turkey. He taught in the departments of English Language and Literature and American Culture and Literature at Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey. His areas of research are Postcolonial Theory, Cultural Studies and Cosmopolitanism. Currently, he is a research fellow in Educational Affairs department at the Peace Islands Institute.
Aydogan Vatandas, is a New York-based investigative journalist, specializing in political science and international relations. He is the author of 13 books, and many are bestsellers in Turkey. Reporting from the Bridge and Hungry for Power: Erdogan’s Witch Hunt and the Abuse of State Power are his first books published in English. Hungry for Power is a collection of articles tracing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s evolution from a democrat to an increasingly authoritarian leader as the Middle East becomes more violent. Since 2006, Vatandas has worked in New York as the representative for Cihan News Agency and correspondent for Todays Zaman Daily, for which he has written dozens of articles on Turkish and Middle East politics. Vatandas earned a journalism degree from Fatih University in Istanbul and a master’s degree in media studies from The New School in New York. After the Turkish Government took over the Zaman Media group in Turkey, Vatandas has started writing for Huffingtonpost.com.
Sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center of New York and the Division of Library and Information Science, St. John’s University.
