From Monday 14 until Friday 18 March 2016, the Istanbul Spring School will take place with the cooperation of NISIS, AKMED, CNMS, IFEA, IISMM/EHESS, Koç University, NIT and RCAC. The overall theme of the Spring School is "Reviving previous times and expanding horizons: Islam and modernity in global historical perspective”. 

The organisation of the Spring School 2016 is a joint effort by:

- Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies / Centrum für nah- und mittelost-Studien (CNMS), University of Marburg
- College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Suna-İnan Kıraç Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED)
- l’Institut français d’études anatoliennes d’Istanbul (IFEA)
- L’Institut d’études de l’Islam et de Sociétés du Monde Musulman / École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (IISMM/EHESS)
- Koç University
- Netherlands Interuniversity School for Islamic Studies (NISIS)
- Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT)
- Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (RCAC)

With the support of the Groupement d’intérêt scientifique « Moyen-Orient et Mondes musulmans » (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

At the scholarly initiative of:

-Professor Mercedes Volait, CNRS, director of InVisu, IISMM
- Professor Albrecht Fuess, Philipps-Universität Marburg, director of Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies / Centrum für nah- und mittelost-Studien (CNMS)
- Professor Levent Yilmaz, director of Koç University's Suna & İnan Kıraç Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED)
- Dr. Petra de Bruijn, director ad interim of NISIS

Overall theme:

Whether modernity is equated with Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment, or Industrial Revolution in the West, or with Islamic reformism, Tanzimat, or Nahda in the East, it can be safely assumed - considering the vast, often polemical, literature the notion has nurtured - that a basic dimension lays in new engagements with time and space.

The Spring school invites to rethink the temporality and spatiality of modernity over a long time span and within enlarged geographies. It aims at pluralizing the notion of modernization, by trespassing usual national and civilizational boundaries.

Please click here for more information.

Keynote Lectures (as part of the Istanbul Spring School) open to the public

The keynote lectures which are taking place in Istanbul as part of the Istanbul Spring School, organized by NISIS and IISMM in cooperation with AKMED, CNMS, IFEA, IISMM/EHESS, Koҫ University, NIT , RCAC, CNRS, INHA, MOMM, OII, and SRII, are open to the public.

In order to register, please send an email to nkut14@ku.edu.tr before Thursday March 10th (limited places available)

All keynote lectures will take place take place in the auditorium of the RCAC (Research Center for Anatolian Civilization) of Koç University

İstiklal Caddesi, 181, Merkez Han, Beyoğlu, İstanbul

Monday 14 March
09.30-10.00: Opening remarks
10.00-10.45: Keynote lecture 1 by Prof. Levent Yilmaz (Koç University): ‘Radical Modernity: A good for export-import?’
10.45-11.15: Questions and discussion
11.15-11.45: Coffee and tea
11.45-12.30: Keynote lecture 2 by Dr. Umar Ryad (Utrecht University): ‘Mediators of Religious Modernity: European Converts to Islam
in Interwar Europe.’
12.30-13.00: Questions and discussion

Tuesday 15 March
10.00-10.45: Keynote lecture 3 by Prof. Mercedes Volait (CNRS/IISMM):
‘Time and geography in the writings and architectural patronage of Egyptian scholar Ahmad Zaki (1867-1934).’
10.45-11.15: Questions and discussion
11.45-12.30: Keynote lecture 4 by Dr. Elena Paskaleva (Leiden University); ‘Islamic Rhetoric in Post-Soviet Uzbekistan: The Timurid Legacy.’
12.30-13.00: Questions and discussion

Thursday 17 March
10.00-10.45: Keynote lecture 5 by Dr. Murat Dağli (Bilgi University), ‘Pragmatism
of early-modern Ottoman polity: Can pragmatism be used as
an explanatory and comparative category?’
10.45-11.15: Questions and discussion
11.15-11.45: Coffee and tea
11.45-12.30: Keynote lecture 6 by Dr. Pierre Hecker (Philipps-University Marburg):
‘The Politics of Culture.’
12.30-13.00: Questions and discussion