The Oğuz Tansel Research Library, named in honor of poet, folklorist and educator Oğuz Tansel (1915–1994), opened last week on Wednesday, December 1 with a ceremony held at the Oğuz Tansel Center for Turkish Literature. The ceremony also included the presentation of two awards: the Oğuz Tansel Folklore Award and the Kalbiye Tansel and Çiğdem Barçan Tansel Thesis Awards.
The ceremony began with a mini-concert by the Bilkent String Quartet and continued with opening remarks by Assoc. Prof. Mehmet Kalpaklı, director of the center.
“The name Oğuz Tansel was given to the Turkish Literature Research and Application Center, established at our university in 2019,” Dr. Kalpaklı said. “Here, projects, research and applications in every field related to Turkish literature – from the use of computers in the humanities to comparative literature; from cultural studies to contemporary literary criticism – will be carried out. The rich library that the Tansel family donated to our university is now open to readers in the new research library we stand in today. The very valuable painting and ceramic collection belonging to Kalbiye and Oğuz Tansel was also donated to our university and is exhibited in the library and the adjacent corridor; many thanks to Beata Zalewska of the Department of Fine Arts, who curated the exhibition.
We would like to thank the Tansel family, especially Aysit Tansel, who made it possible for us to be in this place today.”
Prof. Kürşat Aydoğan, the university’s vice rector for administrative and financial affairs, was next to speak. “This center will conduct many and varied activities, through which it will help to keep Oğuz Tansel’s name alive,” he declared. “This library was conceived as a place for students and researchers; it contains the books from Oğuz Tansel’s own library, which the Tansel family entrusted to us through their donation. All the books were properly cataloged and entered into the Bilkent library system. I would like to thank the family for their belief that the center will carry out its mission faithfully and for their trust in Bilkent University.”
The final speaker was Prof. Aysit Tansel, Oğuz Tansel’s daughter. “I am honored to be here today and very excited about this beautiful place, its opening, and the projects and research that the center will conduct,” she stated. “I am very happy that my father’s memory will live on and his life work will continue in an eminent institution like Bilkent University, among bright-minded young people and in an environment of freedom, which he attached great importance to. This gives me great confidence and happiness.”
The ceremony then proceeded with the presentation of the awards. The Center’s 2021 Oğuz Tansel Folklore Award went to Ahmet Keskin, for his book “Türk Kültüründe Alkışlar ve Kargışlar (Dualar ve Beddualar).” The first four recipients of the Kalbiye Tansel and Çiğdem Barçan Tansel Thesis Awards were Süleyman Serdengeçti and Barış Alpertan, for their doctoral dissertations, and Joseph Aversano and Kaan Kurt for their master’s theses.
The program closed with another short musical performance, by Cenk Güray on the divan sazı.
A video of the event can be watched on the University’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/bilkentuniversitesi/live).