Friday, December 16
Dear Bilkent News,
I learned just a few hours ago that we lost our dear Professor Stanford Shaw this evening.
Before I had met Professor Stanford Shaw, I remember going to the garden party at my great
uncle’s house last year and seeing a gentleman there wearing New Balance shoes. My first
thought was "how cool!" - for this was not a typical sight in Turkey, to see a
senior member of the community wearing shoes marketed traditionally for the younger
generation. I later learned that he could not wear leather shoes and so stuck with his
practical New Balance shoes. Having been born and reared outside of Turkey, one of my
reasons for coming to Bilkent to study was to gain a sense of identity- to discover my
roots, in a sense. With that, I am most honored to say that everything I learned about
Ottoman history and about the early history of the Turkish Republic, I learned from
Professor Shaw. I remember going to his classes, always being greeted with a smile, a
positive outlook no matter what may have been going on and a jovial "Good morning and
how are you today?"
Jeremy Salt had called him amazing, a walking encyclopedia - saying that with Stanford you
just press a button and information begins to flow.
To lose Professor Shaw is to have lost a treasure. To go to his 8:30 a.m. class and not
have him appear last week seemed unreal. I will miss his well worn aqua colored blazer,
the New Balance shoes, the long reports on the research he had been working on since 5:30
a.m. that day, and his stories about working in the Ottoman archives in Egypt only to find
snakes in the basement, about having met Nazım Hikmet, Malcolm X and having lectured to
Kareem Abdul Jaber, among other adventures. I will miss seeing him sitting in the balcony
at the symphony concerts. I will miss seeing him walking around campus hand-in-hand with
his wife, Ezel. I always felt that he was proud of all of his students and believed that
they all had the capacity to take inspiration from his work and carry it forward. This
semester we were asked to give 20-minute presentations on a research project of our
choosing. These 20-minute reports would sometimes run an hour because he would stop us
every three words or so and give details upon details - always encouraging and supporting
us. The best thing I believe, we, as his students, friends and colleagues, can do is to
take heed of his work and his advice. That is, to honor him by being proud of our
identity, by knowing our history and by exploring the many paths he encouraged us to take.
"One day you will write a paper (on such a topic)....inşallah..." I can still
hear him say.
Esra Doğramacı
Graduate Student
FEASS
Department of International Relations
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