Current Institutional Affiliation
Doctoral Candidate, Anthropology, University of California / Los Angeles

Award Information

International Dissertation Research Fellowship 2015
Institutional Affiliation (at time of award):
Anthropology, University of California / Los Angeles
Buried Histories: Ruins and the Politics of Memory in Anatolia

Beginning during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, there have been concerted efforts to homogenize Anatolia ethnically, linguistically, and religiously. Among these efforts were the 1915 genocide of Ottoman Armenians and Assyrians, conversion and assimilation of survivors, and ongoing repressions of Kurdish communities. My project will explore the relationship between memory and space in the context of over a century of violence and forced migration in and around the city of Van, in eastern Turkey. As represented by the ruins of Armenian churches and monasteries and by abandoned Kurdish villages, the landscape and the built environment around Van are the material remains that embody those histories of violence. My research explores how these histories are remembered and narrated, and how they shape the lived experience and political subjectivities of individuals in Anatolia today. My project will investigate the intersections of memory, history, space and place, materiality, and ruins.

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