Modernity's Other: Nostalgia for Village Life in Turkey

Faculty of Social Sciences at Özyeğin University invites you to the online event titled 'Modernity's Other: Nostalgia for Village Life in Turkey.' Dr. Nathan Young from The Ohio State University will join us as the speaker, and Dr. Ezgi Elçi from our Department of International Relations will be the moderator of the event. The event will take place online via Zoom on the 18th of March 2022 between 14:00 and 15:15. 

You can find the zoom link below:

https://ozyegin-edu-tr.zoom.us/j/94216110606?pwd=MEVRT1lkWDlybDRaRWI3bWJYZFlEdz09

Meeting ID: 942 1611 0606
Passcode: 041782 

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Izmir and Ankara, Modernity’s Other: Nostalgia for Village Life in Turkey, demonstrates how sentiments for small-scale, rural lifeways continue to shape Turkish identity and national formation. Applying current ideas from nostalgia theory, I analyze the significance of rural nostalgia from the nation’s founding to its present, where it manifests in advertising, media entertainment, and politics. I contend that the durability of rural nostalgia illustrates and interprets the connection many Turks maintain with their agrarian hometowns despite the rapid influx to urban spaces. Additionally, I claim that such nostalgias reveal essentialized notions of Turkish identity, frameworks of moral-social expectations, and definitions of an idyllic “good life.” Funded by a Fulbright-Hays DDRA and additional grants, ethnographic fieldwork included over hundred, twenty semi-situated interviews at a variety of location in the vicinities of Izmir and Ankara (2018—2019). 

Dr. Nathan Young

Nathan Young began researching Turkey’s rural-to-urban dynamics while completing a master’s degree in Turkish Folklore at Ege University (2014). His subsequent thesis investigated occupational changes in four villages in the Izmir province. He continued graduate studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at the Ohio State University, earning his PhD in 2020. For his doctoral dissertation, he examined the ongoing significance of “village” and “villager” within Turkish imaginaries. His next research project will consider the various discourses surrounding Turkey’s centennial in 2023. He currently serves as a lecturer at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.

Dr. Ezgi Elçi

Ezgi Elçi is a lecturer in the Department of International Relations at Özyeğin University. He obtained his Ph.D. in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Koç University. Previously, he was a visiting student researcher in the Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS) at the University of Georgia with the Fulbright grant. His research interests are on political behavior and political communication. His publications appeared in the British Journal of Political Science, European Political Science Review, Disasters, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies and in edited volumes.