Turkish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin Why You Should Study Turkish Learning Turkish Turkish Program Turkish Library Collection Academic and Cultural Events Publications in Turkish Studies Learning Turkish through Folk Songs Turkish Language Courses
TURKISH STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
The University of Texas at Austin offers the most developed program in Turkish studies in the South and Southwest. Students can learn Turkish at all levels and take a variety of courses on Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, and Central Asia. Undergraduate and graduate students who wish to concentrate on Turkish Studies have available a number of established programs, expert faculty, and a first rate research library, as well as Turkish publication series and special Turkish events.
The establishment of the Turkish Studies as part of the university's academic life reflects over a decade of institutional commitment in which the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies have played leading roles, through their own programs and the support they have provided to activities in other departments. The Center coordinates one of the most comprehensive Middle East programs in the country, with over fifty affiliated faculty from a variety of disciplines who annually teach every year about 150 language and area studies courses on the region, including Turkey. Building the strength of Turkish studies is a major goal of the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Turkey has been the heartland of human civilization since 7,000 B.C. In Turkey you can explore the roads traveled by St.Paul; visit the village the last home of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the village of Santa Claus and the historic city of and Troy; swim on the shores where Homer sailed and Cleopatra swam; and experience the mystery of the whirling dervishes.
Turkish is spoken by 150 million people from the southeast of Europe to the borders of China. A knowledge of modern Turkish is extremely helpful if you are interested in learning Ottoman Turkish or one of the Turkic languages of Central Asia (Uzbek, Tatar, Kazak, Azeri, and Turkmen). It is also useful for conducting research or business both in Turkey and in Central Asia.
According to the Wall Street Journal (March 1, 1995), "the U.S. Commerce Department has identified Turkey as one of the 10 emerging markets that will drive global growth in the next 15 years."
Students enrolled in various colleges and programs can take Turkish to fulfill the university foreign language requirement. Turkish language courses, are offered by the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and taught by Dr. Yildiray Erdener. Students who wish to continue with advanced study of the language beyond the first two years can do so through individual instruction in which the content and readings are tailored to the student's academic and personal interests.
A native of Turkey, Dr. Erdener received a Ph.D. in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana university in 1987. He has taught Turkish at Indina university, the University of California at Berkeley and the defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. With expertise in Turkish language, music and folklore as well as many years of teaching experience, Dr. Erdener brings to the classroom innovative teaching materials and methods, including the learning of Turkish through folk songs, which he accompanies on the saz (the traditional Turkish folk lute). In 1995 he published a book entitled the Song Contests of Turkish Minstrels. His book Turkish Through Songs will be published in 1999 by the Turkish Studies Program of Indiana University.Dr. Erdener is developing new multi-media computer programs for the instruction of Turkish, with grants from the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington and from the US. Department of Education.
Training in the Turkish language is accompanied by other course offerings. University of Texas faculty based in various departments offer courses and expertise in a number of areas, including Ottoman and modern Turkish history, Turkish music and folklore, the geography and urban development of Turkey, the Turkish economic system, the Turkic languages and cultures of Central Asia, Turkish minorities in the Balkans, and Turkish migrant workers in Europe. The Center periodically invites Turkish scholars to campus to teach courses in their fields of specialization.
Students who wish to concentrate their work on Turkey have a number of degree programs available. These programs include, at the undergraduate level, a major (or minor) in Turkish Language and Literature and a major (or minor) in Middle Eastern Cultures, both offered by the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC), and a major (or minor) in Middle Eastern Studies offered by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES). For graduate students, the interdisciplinary M.A. and Ph.D program in MELC and in various departments (including CMES, Anthropology, Geography, Government, History, and Sociology) allow students to specialize on Turkey in their course work and research projects. Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships that provide tuition and a stipend are available for the study of Turkish through an annual campus wide competition coordinated by the CEMS. University of Texas graduate students in Turkish studies have also won major outside fellowships for study and research work in Turkey.
The University of Texas library ranks fifth in size in the country, with about 7.3 million volumes and 52,000 current serials. Its Middle Eastern collection, over 290,000 volumes strong, is one of the leading collections of its kind in North America. It includes tens of thousands of books and periodicals on Turkey, many of them in Turkish. A major award from the U.S. Department of Education enabled the library to acquire complete or nearly complete sets of 310 Turkish and Azerbaijani periodicals. The University of Texas library is the only repository in the United States for many of those journals. The collection is considered a unique national resource in the field of Turkish studies. The development of the Turkish library holdings is coordinated by Abazar Sepehri, Head of the Middle East Library Program. Mr. Sepehri makes regular acquisition trips to Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Every year there are a number of Turkish cultural and scholarly events on campus. In the spring of 1997 the Center for Middle Eastern Studies helped bring to campus a major photographic exhibit entitled "Between Empires: Turks of Central Asia, I850-I925. "The exhibit featured rare archival photographs collected by the distinguished photographer Ergun Cagatay. Mr. Cagatay gave a public talk on the exhibit, and participated in a panel discussion that included resident and outside experts. A previous pictorial exhibit sponsored by the Center "Istanbul: Portrait of a City" opened for public viewing on campus in October 1994. Conceived and developed by Dr. Ian Manners (a specialist in the geography of Turkey) and Dr. Abraham Marcus, with assistance from faculty at Marmara University in Istanbul, the exhibit toured universities and museums throughout the country for over two years. The exhibit was followed by an international conference on the city of Istanbul organized by the Center. It brought together scholars from Turkey and the U.S. for two days of lively presentations and discussions. The following year the Center sponsored performances of traditional Turkish music.
PUBLICATIONS IN TURKISH STUDIES
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies runs a highly acclaimed publications program that among its fifty books on the Middle East, are important Turkish literary works in English translation for the first time. A three volume translation of Aziz Nesin's memoirs, Istanbul Boy, was widely praised.
The Center recently mounted the full text of Part I of the work on its Web site as the forerunner of a new on-line publication series (available for public access at http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/cmes/pub/iboy/iboy.html). Shortly before his death Nesin welcomed the Center's effort to use the new electronic medium to reach a broad audience. A new addition to the list of Turkish titles is the English translation of Adalet Agaoglu's novel "Uc bes kisi", which is coming out under the title Curfew. The Center's publications are distributed by the University of Texas Press, which has itself published a number of recent books on Turkey.
LEARNING TURKISH THROUGH FOLK SONGS
The business world long ago discovered the power of music to alter consumers' behavior. Most commercials on television include music. when ordinary phrases are sung, rather than spoken, viewers retain the information for longer periods of time. It is known that one side of the brain stores verbal knowledge and the other side non-verbal information , including music. For many people music is an effective way to learn and remember things. Song text and music activates both sides of the brain and make the learning process easier. Dr. Erdener has been using songs to teach Turkish for the past seventeen years. He says " I could tell that music increases the interest and consequently the perception of students remarkably and force them to be more attentive in acquiring the language."
Course Descriptions
Instructor: Yildiray ErdenerFirst Year Turkish I
Course Number: TUR 506
Unique Number: 38400Description
This course introduces students to Modern Standard Turkish. With proficiency oriented instruction the course develops students' communication in listening, speaking, reading and writing Turkish. Various classroom activities, including folksongs, are used to stimulate the process of acquiring the Turkish language and culture. Course Objectives: By the end of the semester students are expected to acquire a pronunciation which is understood by a native speaker, to communicate orally using learned material, to read and to write the assigned texts correctly. In this course the emphasis is not on grammar explanation but rather on communication and functional usage of the language. Students are expected to role-play the assigned situations by using learned phrases and vocabulary.First Year Turkish II
Course Number: TUR 507
Unique Number: 38400Description
This course, which builds on the work done in Turkish 506, seeks to improve students' proficiency in all for language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). It will aim at training students to handle successfully a limited number of interactive, task oriented social situations, and express elementary needs, i.e. to achieve a level of proficiency in speaking Turkish of Intermediate Low, (following the Provisional Turkish Proficiency Guidelines). Students will also read and understand main ideas from simple authentic texts and write short compositions. Listening tasks pertain primarily to spontaneous face-to-face conversations.Second Year Turkish I
Course Number: TUR 412K
Unique Number: 38405Description
The objective of this course is to improve students' proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing in modern Turkish. Improving the four language skills and learning more about Turkish culture depends increasingly on students' initiative to do library research, to read Turkish newspapers and periodicals, to meet native speakers on campus, and finally to use the Turkish electronic network. By the end of the semester students should reach at least intermediate mid level (Turkish Proficiency Guidelines) in four basic language skills. For example, students should be able to handle a variety of communicative tasks and social situations, talk about self and family members, ask question about topics beyond the most immediate needs, understand simple discourse in printed form for informative or social purposes, and be able to write short paragraphs or take simple notes on familiar topics.Second Year Turkish II
Course Number: TUR 412L
Unique Number: 38400Description
The purpose of the course is to improve students' proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing so as to enable them to reach the Intermediate High level, in the Turkish Proficiency Guidelines scale, in all four skills. Students will be expected to handle successfully most uncomplicated communicative tasks and social situations, and initiate, sustain, and close a general conversation with a number of strategies appropriate to a range of circumstances and topics, with an emerging evidence of connected discourse in simple narration and/or description. Improvement in the other skills, including learning more about Turkish history, literature, and culture, is achieved through doing library research, reading newspapers, periodicals, and using the Turkish electronic network.
RELATED COURSES
Magic, Religion and Folklore in the Middle East
Course Number: MEL372, MES 322K, ANT 325L, E 325L
Unique Number: 38130
Instructor: Dr. Yildiray ErdenerDescription
This course deals with magic, folk religion and various forms of folklore in the Middle East. To some people "folklore" implies something that is not true. The course will replace that misconception with an understanding of folklore as kind of artistic expression important in maintaining the identity of any given group. After taking the course students will better appreciate the vitality and usefulness of folklore in the Middle East and in the United States. Topics: We will examine topics such as the following: Definition of folklore and a short history of folklore studies; major folklore concepts and approaches; characteristics of the culture area; Islam and its impact on the daily life; folk religion and folk medicine; folk music and foodways; life cycle events (birth, circumcision, marriage, and death).
Musical Cultures of Turkey and Central Asia
Course: MEL 372, MES 326, SES 325
Instructor: Dr. Yildiray ErdenerDescription
This is an introductory course designed to increase the student's understanding and knowledge of the musical cultures of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Considerable attention will be given to the relationship between sacred and secular music and its cultural and social contexts. While the "art music" traditions are covered, the main focus is on traditional, folk and popular music. We will examine specific genres of music that are representative of a given tradition or group. The development of appropriate listening skills and musical vocabulary will be emphasized throughout the course
I N F O R M A T I O N
For information on the Turkish language program contact:
Dr. Erdener
Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas 787I2
Telephone: (5I2) 47I-I365
Fax: (5I2) 47I-4I97
y.erdener@mail.utexas.edu
Web site prepared by: Faik Gur, Teaching Assistant in Turkish Language
with assistance from: John Tran