Renowned German Turkologist to Visit Bilkent
Next week, the noted German Turkologist Klaus Kreiser will be on campus to give a lecture on "Yuvaktaşı," a work by the twentieth-century folklorist, archaeologist and Turkologist Hamit Zübeyr Koşay.
After studying Turkology and completing his PhD at the University of Munich, Prof. Kreiser was appointed chair of the newly opened Department of Turkish Language, History and Culture at Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg in 1983. He subsequently founded the university's Department of Oriental Studies and taught there until his retirement in 2005.
Prof. Kreiser has done extensive research on the late Ottoman and early Republican eras and made important contributions to the study of Turkish modernization and modern Turkish literature, culture, architecture and political history.
He is also an expert on Evliyâ Çelebi and his "Seyahatnâme," as well as the urban history of Istanbul. Prof. Kreiser's most recent major work examines the history of monuments in Turkey during the era of modernization and will be published in the near future.
Aside from his many academic publications, Prof. Kreiser has authored works on Turkey and its history for the general German readership, including a biography of Atatürk that has also been translated into Turkish.
Prof. Kreiser's lecture at Bilkent will consider Koşay's" Yuvaktaşı" -- which has been omitted from histories of literature despite being one of the earliest village novels written during the Republican era -- as well as its author and the time period during which it was written from various points of view. Hosted by the Center for Turkish Literature, the lecture will take place on Monday, April 29 at 5 p.m. in room FBB-06, Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture.