From the Director – Winter 2022
From the Director
Two-thirds of the way through this academic year, ANAMED continues to push forward with a full slate of activities. Annual programs set off confidently in person, yet—with the rise and now slow decline of pandemic variants in Türkiye—a hybrid modality better describes recent work.
Fellows continue their research and writing productively and gather virtually each week for peer presentations and discussion. The “ANAMED Talks” and “ANAMED Library Talks” series, the ANAMED Blog, and the library’s ongoing podcasts continue to provide content online, while the ANAMED Library has welcomed in-person use of its services, stacks, and workspaces. In its largely behind-the-scenes work, ANAMED’s Publications Office released the English proceedings of the 15th International ANAMED Annual Symposium (IAAS), Winds of Change: Environment and Society in Anatolia (Istanbul: Koç University Press, 2021), and proceedings from the recent 14th IAAS and the earlier 8th IAAS are soon to appear as well. And, in addition to a co-supported international workshop on textiles convened by Dr. Amanda Phillips (University of Virginia) and Dr. Ivana Jevtic (KU ARHA) and sponsored by the Barakat Trust for Islamic Art, ANAMED recently opened its first exhibition since the beginning of the pandemic: “Intersecting Past and Present: A Photographic Exploration.”
Celebrating the ANAMED Gallery’s 10th year, this 23rd exhibition features photographs taken by artists Bruno Vandermeulen (KU Leuven Libraries) and Danny Veys (LUCA, School of Arts, Brussels) and historical prints of 19th-century photographs and albums from the Ömer M. Koç Collection. The images are narrated with the help of Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project Director Jeroen Poblome and Meşher Director Bahattin Öztuncay, who set the historical and technical contexts. For their essential support of the exhibition, we are extremely grateful to the Vehbi Koç Foundation, Mr. Ömer M. Koç, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, KU Leuven, the LUCA School of Arts, and the Sagalassos Archaeological Research Project.
Next up in ANAMED’s program in late March is the 16th IAAS—“Places of Illness, Spaces for Healing: The Built Environment of Healthcare in Anatolia Through the Ages”—organized by Dr. Lucienne Thys-Şenocak and Dr. Inge Uytterhoeven (KU ARHA). Thereafter, and before we know it, we’ll be back into summer routines with a rich offering of online and summer programs.
As the seasons pass all too quickly, let me take the happy opportunity here to enumerate several new additions at ANAMED. Among staff, we welcome new ANAMED Head Librarian Çiğdem Yıldırım, who joins us from her previous position as Senior Reference and Research Librarian at the Suna Kıraç Library. Concerning projects and project fellows, we are happy to share that the “Food and Society Project” of Dr. Erica Rowan (PI, Royal Holloway, University London (RHUL)) and Dr. Christina Luke (Co-PI, KU ARHA), which is funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council, supports the holders of two new RHUL-ANAMED Project Fellowships: Dr. Jessica Feito and Dr. Gülşah Şenkol. Similarly, two other post-doctoral fellows—Dr. Alper Aşınmaz and Dr. Xin Hong—are helping to facilitate ANAMED’s Linking Anatolian Pasts (LAP) initiative by orthorectifying historical aerial imagery and connecting other digital collections via linked open data (LOD) protocols. Finally, with the arrival of 2022, we gratefully acknowledge the contributions of our 2019–2021 Advisory Board, just as we thank those who continue alongside our newest members. The full 2022–2024 ANAMED Advisory Board includes the following scholars:
– Suna Çağaptay (Bahçeşehir University, Cambridge University)
– Zeynep Çelik (Columbia University)
– Piraye Hacıgüzeller (Antwerp University)
– John Haldon (Princeton University)
– Shirine Hamadeh (Koç University)
– Barbara Horejs (Austrian Academy of Science, Austrian Archaeological Institute)
– Ivana Jevtic (Koç University)
– Yonca Köksal (Koç University)
– Nikos Kontogiannis (Koç University, Dumbarton Oaks)
– Christina Luke (Koç University)
– Rana Özbal (Koç University)
– Andrew Peacock (St. Andrews University)
– Felix Pirson (German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul)
– Kerem Tınaz (Koç University)
– Inge Uytterhoeven (Koç University)
– Stefan Winter (Koç University)
– Ali Yaycıoğlu (Stanford University)
– Sara Nur Yıldız (University of Florence)
Thank you to all members for their already significant contributions to what makes ANAMED the research center that it is. We look forward to productive collaborations for years to come and hope to see all members of the ANAMED community in person, virtually, or in some hybrid format soon!