On this page are photos, maps, and videos which helped me develop a more palpable understanding of abstract themes and concepts in regards to history and politics of Dersim and the larger context in which they evolved. "Research Trips" shows photos (and their stories) I have taken during my trips to Dersim, Istanbul, Ankara, Tehran, St Petersburg, Moscow, Paris, Nantes, and Boston in pursuit of archival material.
Turkish Newspaper Photos and News on Dersim in 1937
Research Trips
Below are some of the visual material I used for my research, including those on the cosmological beliefs of Dersimis, exiles from Dersim, 1937-38 massacres in the region and their remembrance, as well as the stories of women whom the Turkish officers involved in the operations have enslaved or adopted.
Historical Photos from Dersim
© Dersim Oral History Project
Maps Illustrating Dersim in Different Contexts
A Sample of Ottoman Archives on Dersim
A Documentary Film: I am Going Because I am Scared, I am scared Because I am Going
In my teaching, in addition to traditional assignments, I anticipate welcoming and assisting students who prefer to prepare more creative forms using technologies of digital humanities. I was inspired to adopt this flexibility following one of my own experiences as an undergraduate student at Boğaziçi University, where, instead of writing a paper, I made a short documentary film, in collaboration with a classmate, as the final project of a course on journalism. The professor liked it so much that he organized an event for the entire department faculty to watch it. That has remained an exciting learning experience for me, which I want my students to be able to experience, too.
The film is about a series of events in the city of Diyarbakir in eastern Turkey in 2006. In response to state violence against the residents of the city, students and faculty members of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara organized a series of activities about the events in Diyarbakir at their respective universities and a trip to Diyarbakir to visit the families of the children whom the Turkish security forces had killed. The film provides a glimpse into these tragic events as an alternative source to Turkish national media.