From the Director – Fall 2019
ANAMED is taking on the environment!
Over a year ago I announced ANAMED’s initiative in environmental research. First up were two new post-doctoral positions in environmental archaeology. Since that time, we inaugurated a dedicated workspace for research and training, built up reference collections, and offered a one-day workshop, as well as a four-day training program aiming to increase familiarity and fluency in the methods and theory of environmental archaeology, from A to Z (focusing on Archaeobotany and Zooarchaeology). Going forward this initiative will continue in force with training programs, workshops in environmental history, and more. In the meantime, we invite researchers to take advantage of our workspace and reference collections.
Summer 2019 saw the implementation of our long-running and popular programs in Cappadocia in Context, Ottoman Turkish, and Ancient Languages of Anatolia, each led by experienced instructors with much appreciated one-on-one, personal touches. Meanwhile, through our collaboration with the British Institute in Ankara (BIAA) on the online program “Safeguarding Archaeological Assets of Türkiye” (SARAT), thousands of students have remotely completed coursework and earned certificates. Closer to home, we continue to offer hands-on workshops in other subjects too, most recently a basic training in open source GIS for social sciences and humanities.
ANAMED marked the beginning of the fall with the arrival of its new research fellows. Twenty-five fellows quickly completed their orientations with “elevator-pitch”-style talks at the Rumelifeneri campus and are now engaged in their research as well as weekly “in-house” presentations. At least ten additional fellows will join us before the academic year is out, including some in our short-term fellowship program encouraging collaborative projects: applications will soon be accepted!
The fall has hosted also a series of events, including well-attended talks and symposia. Among many talks from visitors and colleagues, including several former fellows, the ANAMED-Turkish Historical Foundation collaboration on a series of ANAMED Library Talks continues to attract crowds each month. The library, too, is always attracting new users, in part owing to the collaborative success of BiblioPera (highlighted in recent posters and papers), as well as new collection donations.
A one-day symposium in mid-December organized in collaboration with the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII) returned to the theme of ANAMED’s 10th International Annual Symposium: Spoliation as Translation: Medieval Worlds in the Eastern Mediterranean. Our 14th annual symposium, organized by former BIAA-ANAMED joint fellow B. Nilgün Öz and ARHA faculty and ANAMED Advisory Board member Christina Luke, was a collaboration with UNESCO’s World Heritage Center and focused on Heritage, World Heritage, and the Future: Perspectives on Scale, Conservation, and Dialogue. On the subject of ANAMED symposia, I’m happy to announce also that papers from our 11th annual symposium have just been published in English and Turkish editions: Sacred Spaces and Urban Networks, edited by ARHA faculty member Suzan Yalman and former fellow A. Hilâl Uğurlu.
The ANAMED publication office has been busy recently with other work as well. English and Turkish editions of Archival Memories: Marcell Restle’s Research in Anatolia and Beyond, edited by Lioba Theis, Su Sultan Akülker, and Caroline Mang, were published for an exhibition held in parallel with the Fifth International Sevgi Gönül Byzantine Studies Symposium (the exhibition remains open until late spring 2019).
Finally, the first of ANAMED’s Turkish translations of essential handbooks appeared and—very gratifyingly—has already gone through a second printing: Joanita Vroom’s Bizans’tan Modern Döneme Ege’de Seramik, 7.–20. Yüzyıllar: Bir Giriş ve El Kitabı, translated by Yasemin Bağcı. We aim to publish translations of similarly valuable work on a regular basis, hoping to make them accessible to the wide body of students in Türkiye engaged in the collection, analysis, and preservation of the rich heritage of Anatolian civilizations. I look forward to bringing such work to your attention in forthcoming biannual newsletters, which have now settled into what will be a regular December and June publication schedule. Until June 2020, then—by which time I hope to have seen many of you here—greetings from ANAMED!
Chris Roosevelt
ANAMED Director