Through this course, you will intellectually and physically traverse the city’s nearly three thousand year, multi-layered history, and then explore some of the contemporary challenges and opportunities faced when living in and engaging with what is now a mega-city, built on these powerful historical foundations.

Istanbul as Capital of Empires, Capital of Cultures

For any person who studies in Istanbul, it is essential to have a grounding in its complex history. This is a city of three cultures and civilizations—Byzantium (Greek), Constantinople (Roman), Konstantiniyye/ Istanbul (Ottoman/Turkish)— which has known Paganism, Christianity, Judaism and Islam in all their variants.

Istanbul was the seat of the earliest and arguably most important Church councils and theologians of early Christianity.

As heirs of Rome, the city kept the classical heritage alive and worked to keep Islam away from Europe as long as it was able to. Having floundered as the remnant of ancient Christian Rome, it then became the seat of the young and dynamic Ottoman Empire.

Always multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, straddling both Europe and Asia, Constantinople/Istanbul has never ceased to be a frontier city and cultural capital, one of the most enthralling and important places on earth.

Without it, Europe as we now know it most likely would have never existed, nor therefore the West as we know it today. And Islam equally would also have been a very different proposition had the last heir of the Roman Empire not passed into the hands of the Ottomans.

Istanbul as Megacity: Contemporary challenges and opportunities

Istanbul is also a city which has experienced unprecedented urban expansion (growing from less than 1 million people in 1950, to between 12 to 15 million today) accompanied by an explosion of artistic, social and economic development opportunities, as well as growing inequality, intense pressures on public infrastructure and resources, and political tensions–all of which are infused with, and complicated by, the city’s past.

Throughout the Signature Seminar, emphasis will be given to inquiries into the interplay between history and modern day life in Turkey.

For example, we will explore the changing policies and statuses of Turkey’s religious majority (Sunni Muslims) and her religious minorities. We will delve into the role of Islams in Turkey (looking at two different Islamic traditions in Turkey, including site visits with a local Sunni Imam and an Alevite/Shi’a Dergahi communal house), and the diversity and important heritage of religious minorities in Turkey including Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox traditions.

This seminar is also intended to lay the necessary historical foundations to prepare you for your full semester course, where we will engage in greater depth with more recent historical events, conflicts and seeming contradictions of Turkey in the modern era. Modern Turkey cannot be understood properly without a grasp of these fundamental and often persistent legacies.

…continuing explorations: semester academic field study.

Survival Turkish

Students will quickly find that in Turkey, many people speak little or no English.

During the Signature Seminar it is therefore critical for students without any background in the Turkish language to be introduced to the basic logic of the language, and to learn and be able to use the most important and frequently used phrases for simple marketplace, restaurant, transportation and interpersonal transactions. Survival Turkish lessons are an important component of the Signature Seminar, and students are required to attend them and participate in the structured practice opportunities.

Students are strongly encouraged to register for Turkish language courses offered through Bahçeşehir University during the semester.