The Institute of Turkish Studies (ITS) is a foundation based in the United States with the avowed objective of advancing Turkish studies at colleges and universities in the United States. Having been founded and provided a grant from the Republic of Turkey in the 1980s, the institute has issued undergraduate scholarships, language study awards, grant money to scholars, and underwritten the holding of workshops. Its work has also attracted controversy by observers who have criticized it as a body held under the sway of the political ideology of the Turkish state, active in the denial of the Armenian genocide and other topics considered taboo, such as the condition of the Kurds in the country.
In a surprise move in late 2015, the Turkish government announced that it would cut all funding to the institute.[1]
History
The Institute of Turkish Studies was established in 1982, with a $3 million grant from the Turkish government.[2] It is a non-profit, private educational foundation based in the United States "dedicated to the support and development of Turkish Studies in American higher education".[3] Heath W. Lowry become the first executive director of the institute, before becoming the incumbent of the Atatürk Chair of Turkish Studies at Princeton, which was financed by the Turkish government.[4] The institute is housed at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Writing in 1998, the institute's treasurer stated that 95 percent of the institute's income was derived from a trust administered by the institute.[5] The late Donald Quataert, former member of the institute's board of governors, stated that the trust's funds can be revoked by the Turkish government.
Mission
- To support individual scholars of the academic profession in the United States, for advanced research in Turkish history and culture as well as contemporary political, social, and economic developments in Turkey;
- To assist American universities in developing their library resources, programs of study, scholarly conferences, and outreach activities in the field of Turkish Studies
- To support the publication of books and journals on Turkey and broaden the understanding and knowledge of Turkish history, society, politics, and economics in the United States;
- To promote better understanding of Turkish politics, economy, and society through lectures and conferences.
Officers and members of the Board of Governors:
Officers
Nabi Şensoy, Honorary Chairman and Ex Officio Member of the Board of Governors, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the US.
W. Robert Pearson, ret., chairman, former United States Ambassador to Turkey
David C. Cuthell, Executive Director
Grants
Since 1983, the institute has sponsored an annual grant program to scholars, colleges and universities in the United States. The principal purpose of the grant program is to support the development of research, and scholarship in the field of Turkish Studies. The grant applications submitted to the Institute are evaluated by committees composed of the Board of Governors and Associate Members of the ITS. These standing committees present their recommendations to the Board of Governors for approval. The institute offers grants and fellowships in the fields of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies to graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, universities, and other educational institutions through its Grant Program for the 2009–2010 academic year.[6]
Publications
The ITS has published a number of books in conjunction with other publishers. Some of the publications supported by the Institute include:[6]
- Gülru Necipoğlu The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire (London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2005)
- Donald Quataert and Sabri Sayari (eds.), Turkish Studies in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Publications, 2003)
- Leslie Peirce, Morality Tales: Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court of Aintab (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
- Jenny B. White, Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002)
- Sibel Bozdoğan, Modernism and Nation Building: Turkish Architectural Culture in the Early Republic (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001)
- Scott Redford, Landscape and the State in Medieval Anatolia (Oxford, England: Archaeopress, 2000)
- Caesar E. Farah, The Politics of Interventionism in Ottoman Lebanon 1830-1861 (Oxford, London: The Center for Lebanese Studies, 2000)
- Palmira Brummett, Image and Imperialism in the Ottoman Revolutionary Press, 1908-1911 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000)
- Howard Crane (ed. & transl.) The Garden of Mosques: Hafiz Hüseyin al-Ayvansarayî's Guide to the Muslim Monuments of Ottoman Istanbul Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill (NV, 2000)
- Dictionary of Turkish Acronyms and Abbreviations: A selected List (1928–1995) Compiled by Suzan Akkan, (Madison, Wisconsin: Turco-Tatar Press, 1999)
- Kemal Silay (ed.), Turkish Folklore and Oral Literature: Selected Essays of Ilhan Basgöz (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Turkish Series, 1998)
- Daniel Goffman, Britons in the Ottoman Empire (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998)
- John Goulden (transl.), Adalet Agaoğlu, Curfew (The University of Texas at Austin: The Center for Middle Eastern Studies, 1997)
- Reşat Kasaba and Sibel Bozdoğan (eds.), Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997)
- Seyfi Karabas and Judith Yarnall (transls.), Poems by Karacaoglan, A Turkish Bard (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Turkish Series, 1996)
- Avigdor Levy (ed.), The Jews of the Ottoman Empire (Princeton, New Jersey: Darwin Press: 1994)
- Karen Barkey, Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1994)
- Kemal Silay, Nedim and the Poetics of the Ottoman Court (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Turkish Studies Series, 1994)
- Henry Glassie, Turkish Traditional Art Today (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1993)
- Halil Inalcik, The Middle East and the Balkans Under the Ottoman Empire: Essays on Economy and Society, (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Turkish Series, 1993)
- Heath W. Lowry and Donald Quataert (eds.), Humanist and Scholar: Essays in Honor of Andreas Tietze, (Istanbul: ISIS Press, 1992)
- Aron Rodrigue (ed), Ottoman and Turkish Jewry, Community and Leadership (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Turkish Series, 1992)
- Fatma Müge Göçek, East Encounters West: France and the Ottoman Empire in the Eighteenth Century (New York & Washington, DC: Oxford University Press & ITS, 1987)
- Aptullah Kuran, Sinan : The Grand Old Master of Ottoman Architecture (Washington, DC & Istanbul, Turkey, ITS & Ada Press, 1987*)