This course explores whether a multicultural Europe is sustainable given the current migrant crisis and Europe’s major culture clash. Focusing on Denmark, Germany, and Greece, we investigate the social, cultural, and political mechanisms lying at the heart of cultural conflicts and integration issues. This course analyzes theoretical concepts such as integration, assimilation, multiculturalism, recognition, cultural norms, identity, nationalism, and tolerance.
Ph.D. in Anthropology (University College London, 2020). MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies (School of Oriental and African Studies, London 2010). MA in Political Science and International Relations (Bogazici University, 2009). BA in Political Science and International Relations (Bogazici University, 2007). Quantitative and qualitative researcher with work and field experience in Istanbul, London and Jerusalem. First book, “Mobility and Armenian Belonging in Contemporary Turkey: Migratory Routes and the Meaning of the Local” (London: IB Tauris, 2022). Currently working on a second book, “An Island that is No More: Politics and Placemaking in Istanbul.” With DIS since 2021.
Short Study Tour
About this tour
As this course follows the recent anthropological and sociological literature on the making of nation-states both from the inside and outside, the tours (as well as other sites visits and guest lectures) of the course attempts to help you understand how diversity and national unity are re-produced and exposed at the mental and literal borders.
This is why, during Core Course Week, you visit Sønderborg, a historically significant town located on the Danish-German border, and its surroundings. You have an opportunity to understand the historical context in which Denmark and Germany were drawn, and similarly to reflect on the everyday local articulations of belonging (among people of German origin in Denmark and people of Danish origin in Germany). In this sense, the Study Tour not only takes into account of the historical origins of partition between the two countries but critically engages with the more contemporary articulations of Danish identity.
Learning outcomes
To understand the history of the partition between Germany and Denmark and its long-lasting implications on Danish identity and national unity
To put issues of belonging in comparative perspective between centers (Copenhagen) and the peripheries (border zones)
To identify the minority experiences of people of German origin in Denmark and people of Danish origin in Germany — in a way to critically engage with the experiences of other minorities in contemporary Denmark
Possible activities
Sønderjylland Museum to better understand the long history of the partition and unification between Denmark and Germany
Deutsches Museum Nordschleswig, a local museum in Denmark which has exhibitions on the past and of the resent of the Germany minority in the region
Flansborg Avis (a Danish newspaper in Flensburg, Germany) which has been published daily since 1869
The Frøslev Camp Museum to get a grasp of how the border once again was a zone of tension during WWII
Long Study Tour
About this tour
Following the main theme of the course, which attempts to decipher historical and popular views on national unity and diversity, this Study Tour helps you locate contemporary issues of belonging, integration, and discrimination into wider European perspective. This is why the tour takes place in the ‘peripheries’ of the EU; namely Greece, a country which is not historically contested in terms of nation-building but which has been challenged in terms of integration in the wake of the ‘refugee crisis’ of the past ten years. The tour is specifically designed for you to better understand center vs. periphery dynamics through visiting two cities in the country: Athens — a city which is widely imagined as the eternal ancient capital of Greece, and Thessaloniki — which was of the most important urban centers of the region for centuries before the Greek independence. You will have a first-hand opportunity to observe the demographic composition and transformation of Greece through engaging with the stories of the migrants, and the past and present refugees who made these two cities their homes.
Learning outcomes
To understand the recent history of Greece in relation to making of modern European borders
To compare and contrast Denmark, a country often imagined as homogenous, with Greece, where the local population is diverse in terms of language, ethnicity, and religion
To put issues of belonging in comparative perspective between centers (i.e. Copenhagen and Athens) with peripheries (i.e. Sønderborg and Thessaloniki)
Possible activities
Meetings with refugee experts based in Thessaloniki, which is located at the border of EU and NATO
Meetings with ‘local’ Muslim communities of Greece to discuss the wider imaginations about and the practical implications of Christian Greek identity
Meetings with urban historians in both cities to better understand the histories of migration to and from the country
Visit to the Jewish Museum in Thessaloniki to compare the histories of WWII in Denmark and Greece
