Dear all,

The Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History cordially invites you to a talk by Dr. Nadav Solomonovich (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) "The Korean War in Turkish Culture and Society" on Thursday, May 4 at 2 pm at Boğaziçi University - Atatürk Institute Seminar Room.

Those who do not have valid identity cards to enter the campus please send an email to cemre.unaldi@boun.edu.tr by 3 May at the latest.

Talk Summary:

The Korean War in Turkish Culture and Society stands at the intersection of social history, cultural history, and Cold War studies. It examines the representation of the Korean War in Turkish culture and society based on various sources (including archival documents, contemporary Turkish newspapers, minutes of parliamentary sessions, prose, poems, theatre plays, memoirs, images, cartoons, and films). The Korean War has been analyzed mainly from an American perspective, which often comes at the expense of studying its transnational implications. Seeking to fill this gap, this book explores the various kinds of propaganda used by the state and other influential civic groups in Turkey during the 1950s to shape public opinion regarding the Korean War and relevant domestic and international actors and processes in the wake of the Cold War, and their impact on Turkish culture and society. 

Bio

Dr. Nadav Solomonovich a cultural historian of the Middle East. His research and teaching interests include the cultural and social history of modern Turkey and its roots in the late Ottoman Empire; Islam in modern Turkey; nationalism and nation building processes in the Middle East; and memory studies. He is currently a Gerda Henkel Stiftung postdoctoral fellow and an adjunct lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working on national celebrations in Turkey and on Turkish children’s magazines during the Cold War. He received his Ph.D. in November 2018 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he worked under the supervision of Prof. Eyal Ginio (The Hebrew University) and Prof. Umut Uzer (İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi).

His first book, titled The Korean War in Turkish Culture and Society was published in October 2021 with Palgrave-Macmillan, and he has published several articles on topics revolving Turkish culture and late Ottoman history in leading academic journals such as Islamic Law and Society (2015), Middle Eastern Studies (2018), Turkish Historical Review (2019), New Perspectives on Turkey (2021), Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies (2022), and Israel Affairs (2022).