New York University will be presenting a talk that will explore the historical journey of Dersim (now called Tunceli), a mountainous region in eastern Anatolia with a predominantly Kizilbash Kurdish population, as it transitioned from the Ottoman Empire to the modern Turkish state.

The talk will be by historian Cevat Dargin of Columbia University, who specialises in modern Middle Eastern and North African history and politics, with commentary from Sara Pursley, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University.

The 2.5 hour lecture will analyse how racialised ideologies and colonial policies influenced the treatment and perception of this ethno-religious group across both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish nation-state.

The talk will seek to provide critical insights into broader issues of identity, violence, and statecraft in the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century transformations from indirect imperial to centralised nation-state rule.

People can attend the event in person at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies or watch online. The event is free and open to all to attend, however prior registration is needed for either option.

Talk Details

Title: Lecture by Cevat Dargın: Roads to Civilization: Imagining, Mapping, and Integrating Dersim into the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish State

Date: Thursday 11 April 2024

Time: 5pm to 7.30pm EST (10pm to 12.30am UK Time)

Venue: Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, 255 Sullivan St (at Washington Square South), New York, NY 10012, USA

Admission: Free. To register to attend the event in person, please click here.

To register to view the event on online version, please click here.