From September 2003 onwards, the Turkish Studies
Department of Leiden University will offer a unique programme for graduates with
an interest in Turkey, the Ottoman Empire and Central Asia. This programme
offers two options: a one-year MA degree programme in Turkish Studies and a
two-year research MA in Turkish Studies with the option to continue with a Ph.D.
research programme. The courses are offered in Leiden and in Istanbul, at Bilgi
University. Fieldwork in Turkey or Central Asia is a compulsory part of the
programme. Students of the two-year programme can opt for spending time at the
Khazar University in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The objectives of the programme are to gain insight into the dynamics of
modernisation in Turkey and Central Asia, with an eye on the legacy of the past
as well as on long term political, social, economic and cultural developments.
Furthermore, to gain research experience in Turkey or Central Asia. The degree
programme prepares students for a career in the media, the public sector, or
international relations. Successful completion of an MA can also lead to more
advanced PhD research and eventually to an academic career. Academic
responsibility rests with Prof. Dr. E.J. Zürcher, who holds the chair of Turkish
studies at Leiden University.
In the first semester (September-December) four courses in Turkish studies are
offered in Leiden. Students choose two courses out of the following four:
From Empire to Republic
This course focuses on the legacy of the Young Turk era; Kemalist nation
building and the transformations of the interbellum; socio-economic developments
in the Kemalist republic, and on Turkish and foreign historiography.
The Ottoman Empire and Europe
The course concentrates on diplomatic relations between the Empire and Europe;
Ottoman and Islamic legal concepts regarding foreigners; the role of
intermediaries; and the perception of the "other".
Great debates about East and West
The focus in this course is on the provocative ideas about the relationship
between Europe and the Middle East formulated by authors like Said, Huntington,
Naipaul, Lewis and Fukuyama.
From Protectorate to Sovereign States: Soviet and post-Soviet
Central Asia and the Caucasus
This course focuses on the political, ideological and economic
nineteenth/twentieth century and recent history of this region and the sociology
of its developments.
In addition, students take a course in research methodology.
In the second semester (February-June) students spend 12 weeks in Istanbul. In
this period they take two compulsory courses:
The Impact of the West
This course deals with the influence of European science and technology from the
Eighteenth Century onwards and with the way lifestyles and mentalities changed
in the late Ottoman Empire and in the Turkish Republic
Changing Patterns of Gender Relations
This course is on the real and imagined changes in the position of women in
society. The relationship between gender issues and nationalism is a particular
concern.
In addition, they collect material for their MA thesis from Turkish archives or
libraries. The MA thesis itself is written in Leiden in May-July. The thesis
must be related to a subject of one of the courses followed.
The two-year Programme
The students of this programme in the first and
second semester have the same programme as the one-year students. After the
courses in Istanbul, they have the option of either collecting material in
Turkey and writing a term paper in May-June, or spending eight weeks at the
Khazar University in Baku (Azerbaijan).
In their third semester these students take the two Turkish Studies courses
which they have missed in their first semester and take a course from one of the
other MA programmes in the Humanities or Social Sciences in Leiden. Students can
also opt for an extra language course in one of the languages of the Middle East
or Central Asia. (E.g. Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Aramaic,
Hebrew, Armenian, Azeri or Kazakh).
In their final semester students go to Turkey for eight weeks of field work,
after which they return to Leiden to write their MA thesis (April-July) The
topic of the thesis must be related to their fieldwork.
Non-degree study
Students may also be admitted to study part of
the conversion and MA programme without aiming at a degree.
The Turkish Studies Department of Leiden University is one of the largest
research and teaching departments in its field in Europe. It has a permanent
staff of six, one of who is permanently stationed in Istanbul and six additional
staff members with non-tenured positions. It offers BA, MA and Ph.D. degrees.
The department has close links to the Turkish academic and intellectual world,
resulting in a constant inflow of Turkish MA and Ph.D. students. The Department
offers two MA programmes jointly with Istanbul Bilgi University, one in European
Studies, and the other in Turkish Studies. These programmes are taught partly in
Istanbul and partly in Leiden. The teaching is enhanced with regular guest
lectures by professors from other universities from the Netherlands and abroad.
The department of Turkish Studies combines expertise in the languages of the
region with strong historically oriented research programmes.
More detailed information on the department and its teaching and research
programmes can be found at
www.let.leidenuniv.nl/tcimo/tulp . More information on the courses and
application can be found at: www.leiden.edu
"Programmes in English" or directly from Dr. Saskia Gieling at Leiden University
World Wide Programmes <s.gieling@luwp.leidenuniv.nl>.
