Bilkent Collaborates “Towards a Deeper Understanding of Rural Europe”
Bilkent University has become part of a new initiative supported by the European Union. "Towards a Deeper Understanding of Rural Europe" exists within the framework of the "Promotion of the Civil Society Dialogue between the EU and Turkey" program. For the project, Bilkent University's Department of Communication and Design, and Department of History have formed a partnership with Leiden University in the Netherlands, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Section Visual Ethnography; Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg II, UFR of Arts in France. Associates of the project are Hacettepe University Department of Anthropology; ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Dutch Art Institute in Enschede; NIHA Netherlands Institute for Higher Education in Ankara, and KozaVisual, an audiovisual initiative. (continues)
Bilkent Celebrates 1001 Nights
Bilkent, in cooperation with UNESCO TMK, organized and played host to an international symposium on 1001 Nights on Saturday, September 20. Atlas Magazine and ANKAmall provided further support. The event focused around 1001 Nights, considered to be one of the most important collections of Oriental stories in history. Collected over centuries, the tales link together, carrying common characters and storylines. These have been translated, rewritten, and reinterpreted and therefore offer plenty to discuss and analyze.
The symposium, held in the C-Block Auditorium, opened with a keynote speech by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Marzolph from Georg-August University, Germany. In his speech, entitled "Çok Uluslu Anlatım Sanatının Bir Abidesi Olarak Binbir Gece Masalları," Prof. Dr. Marzolph gave a brief history of 1001 Nights and discussed distinguishing characteristics of the collection.
In the first session of the symposium, there were three papers covering the linguistic features, translation problems and function of the 1001 Nights tales. After introducing the Bursa manuscript of 1001 Nights, known to be the oldest manuscript, Dr. Gülseren Tor from Eastern Mediterranean University discussed the linguistic and morphologic elements of the manuscript, which determines the literary style of tales. Dr. Hakan Karateke from Chicago University focused on the problems in the French translation of 1001 Nights by Antoine Galland from a historical and comparative perspective. Prof. Dr. Semih Tezcan from Bilkent University presented a paper on the function of the 1001 Nights tales and claimed that they basically served as entertainment in their time.
In the second session of the symposium, the emphasis was on the oral characteristic of the 1001 Nights tales. Dr. Hande Birkalan-Gedik from Yeditepe University brought the Turkish 1001 Nights tradition into focus and stated that the tales have an impact not only on oral literary works, but also on written literary ones. Prof. Dr. Öcal Oğuz from Gazi University, after briefly mentioning diffusion theories in the field of folklore studies, discussed that it would not be possible to track the source of the 1001 Nights tales using these theories. Dr. Akif Kireççi from Bilkent University made benefit of reader-response theory, which is designed to analyze written literary works, for a new interpretation of one of the tales. Özcan Yüksek from Atlas magazine underlined the importance of oral traditions and analyzed the first tale of the collection.
After the symposium, a special 1001 Nights concert, performed by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Işın Metin, with Gülsin Onay with the piano, was held at the Bilkent Concert Hall.
Bilkent News Interactive is
best viewed by 800x600 resolution.
You can send comments, questions, etc. about Bilkent News Interactive by clicking this
link.
|
Industrial Engineering Department Fully Accredited by ABET
The Industrial Engineering undergraduate program is now fully accredited by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET). ABET was established in the U.S. in 1932 as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD), for the purpose of assuring quality and stimulating innovation in engineering and technology education.
For many years ABET used the concept of Substantial Equivalency in place of Accreditation for programs outside the U.S. Substantial Equivalency is granted to an engineering program for a specific period. In 1995, Bilkent's Industrial Engineering Department was the first in Turkey to receive Substantial Equivalency.
According to Prof. İhsan Sabuncuoğlu, Chair of the Industrial Engineering Department, "This time, the ABET team reviewed the quality of our program, including students, faculty, facilities, educational objectives, and program outcomes, and granted us with the full accreditation. I am very pleased to announce that the Industrial Engineering Program and Bilkent is among the first international programs to be ABET accredited. It is privilege to have such recognition because others will know about the high quality education that our students receive." Prof. Sabuncuoğlu also stated that students will be eligible to take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam and eventually the Professional Engineering Exam and become registered.
A Warm Welcome from Bilkent Library
The Library was silent and a little sad during the summer without our beloved users. But during that time we didn't stop working in order to provide better services and opportunities for you, including, for example, our recent renovation of the Current Periodicals Room. Also, our new website is now
up-and-running.
The design and content of the site has been renewed and we hope it is now much more user friendly. Please share your opinions and suggestions with us. By the way, we must thank our student assistant,Kadir Okan Cerrah, and Batur Orkun from BCC, as well as the Student Union Photography Club for their valuable help. Finally, we thank the Library staff, Zeynep Aykut and Güneş Karaağaç, for their hard work.(continues)
Also in this issue:
|
