Dr. Egemen Özbek
CV
- Ottoman-Turkish history
- Middle Eastern history
- Politics of memory
- History of memory and commemoration
- Public history
- Genocide Studies
2017
Ph.D. Cultural Mediations, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Thesis: Commemorating the Armenian Genocide: The Politics of Memory and National Identity.
Co-supervisors: Barbara Gabriel and Jill Carrick
Examiners: Hülya Adak, David Dean, Fatma Müge Göçek, Paul Theberge
2006
M.A., Modern Turkish History, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
Thesis: Quests for Impossible Wholeness: Time, Memory and In-Betweenness in Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu and Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s Huzur (Mind at Peace).
Supervisor: Duygu Köksal
2004
B.A. (Hons), Cultural Studies, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
Senior Project: Writing About Literature and Writing Literature
Supervisor: Hülya Adak
2023 -
Academic Coordinator, Academy in Exile, TU Dortmund
2018–2023
Academic Coordinator, Academy in Exile, University Duisburg-Essen
2015–2017
Instructor, History Department, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
2012
Instructor, Cultural Studies Department, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
2008–2014
Research and Teaching Assistant, History Department, Carleton University
2006–2008
Instructor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Işık University, Istanbul, Turkey
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), 2013–2014
- Elizabeth Witt Bursaries for Comparative Literature, Carleton University, 2012–2013
- Graduate Scholarship, Carleton University, 2008–2010
- Dean of Graduate Studies Academic Excellence Scholarship for International Students, Carleton University, 2008–2011
- Naida Waite Graduate Scholarship, Carleton University, 2008–2009
Memory Studies Association
Publications, Presentations and more
Peer-reviewed Articles
“The Destruction of the Monument to Humanity: Historical Conflict and Monumentalization”, International Public History, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 2018. <https://doi.org/10.1515/iph-2018-0011>
“Bütünlük Arayışı: Kayıp Zamanın İzinde ve Huzur’da Benlik, Hafıza ve Zaman” [Quest for Wholeness: Subjectivity, Memory and Time in A la recherche du temps perdu and Mind at Peace] Kritik, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2008
Book chapters
“Geçmiş Krizi: Türkiye’de Ermeni Süryani Soykırımı ile Yüzleşme ve İmkânsızlık,” [Crisis of the Past: Coming to Terms with the Armenian Assyrian Genocide in Turkey and Impossibility] Bir Büyük Dönüşümden Kesitler: Dünya ve Türkiye, edited by Barış Ünlü and Bülent Eken, Dipnot, 2023.
“Commemorating the Armenian Genocide: Spatial Politics of Memory in Post-Imperial Istanbul,” Critical Approaches to Genocide: History, Politics, and Aesthetics of 1915, edited by Hülya Adak, Fatma Müge Göçek and Ronald Grigor Suny, Routledge, pp. 238–258, 2023. DOI: 10.4324/9780429023163-21
“Right to Arrive: Topographies of Genocide, Flight, and Hospitality—Then and Now”, (with Vanessa Agnew) in Refugee Routes: Telling, Looking, Protesting, Redressing, edited by Vanessa Agnew, Kader Konuk, and Jane O. Newman, Transcript Verlag, pp. 51–86, 2020. DOI: 10.14361/9783839450130-006
“68’li Olmak: Hatırlamak ve Aidiyet” [“Being a Member of the ’68 Generation: Remembering and Identity”] (with Yunus Dogan Telliel) in Kuşaklar, Deneyimler,Tanıklıklar: Türkiye’de Sözlü Tarih Çalışmaları, Konferans Bildirileri [Generations, Experiences, Testimonies: Oral History Studies in Turkey, Conference Proceedings]. The History Foundation of Turkey, pp. 245–261, 2006.
Forthcoming: “The Afterlives of Dead Bodies: Necropolitics and Memorialization as Denial,” in Afterlives: Remnants, Ruins and Representations of the Armenian Genocide, edited by Hülya Adak, Erdağ Göknar, Melanie Tanielian.
Book Review
Review of Agitate! Educate! Organize!: American Labor Posters by Lincoln Cushing and Timothy W. Drescher. Visual Studies, vol. 25, Issue 1, 2010. <https://doi.org/10.1080/14725861003607140>
Other Publications
“Yeni bir hatırlama kültürü ve Ermeni Soykırımı anmaları,” [A new culture of remembrance and the commemorations of the Armenian genocide] Birikim Dergisi, December, No. 392, 60–69, 2021.
“Gender Studies in Exile. Workshop Report”, in KWI-BLOG, 04.02.2021. <https://doi.org/10.37189/kwi-blog/20210204-0830>
“Refugee Routes: Telling, Looking, Protesting, Redressing – An Academy in Exile Book”, in TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 04.02.2021. <https://trafo.hypotheses.org/26441>
Conference Presentations
October 2022
“The Afterlives of Dead Bodies: Necropolitics as Denial.” Fourth Annual Conference: Out of Control? How Concepts and Practices Circulate across Boundaries, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
July 2021
“Commemorating the Armenian Genocide: A Transnational Politics of Memory.” Memory Studies Association Conference. Online.
June 2019
“The Destruction of the Monument to Humanity: Historical Conflict and Monumentalization.” Memory Studies Association Conference. Madrid, Spain.
September 2018
“Exile, Refugeehood, and Survival: Re-reading Armenian Genocide Survivor Memoirs.” Turkologentag 2018. Bamberg, Germany.
May 2017
“Commemorating the Armenian genocide in Turkey: the politics of memory and representation” CASCA/IUAE 2017 Conference. Ottawa, ON, Canada.
April 2013
“Coming-to-Memory of the Armenian Genocide: The Renovation of Habap Fountains as a Site of Memory,” National Council on Public History 2013 Annual Meeting. Ottawa, ON, Canada.
July 2010
“Trauma, Identity and Memory in Elif Shafak’s ‘The Bastard of Istanbul,’” World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies. Barcelona, Spain.
Workshop Presentations
July 2019
“Entangled Memories of the WWI and the Armenian Genocide.” Legacies of World War I. Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
April 2019
“Collective Memories, National Belonging, and Citizenship Laws in Turkey: Remembering to Exclude Non-Muslims from the Nation.” Nationality Now: The History, Culture, and Politics of Contemporary Citizenship. Queen Mary University of London, UK.
September 2017
“Commemorating the Armenian Genocide: Spatial Politics of Memory in Post-Imperial Istanbul.” Workshop on Armenian Turkish Scholarship 2017 – Past in the Present: European Approaches to the Armenian Genocide. Lepsiushaus Potsdam, Germany.
April 2017
“Historiographic Détente: Reconciling Competing Memories of the Armenian Genocide and Track Two Diplomacy.” Queen’s University Muslim Societies, Global Perspectives and the History Department International Workshop: The Middle East Un-Rebound: Crisis, Response and Recovery over the Longue Durée (1100-2100). Kingston, ON, Canada.
March 2013
“The Coming-to-Memory of the Armenian Genocide: Public Commemorations in Turkey (2005-2012),” Carleton University ICSLAC Cultural Transfers Workshop: Cultures of Violence and Commemoration with Esen Egemen Ozbek and Jennifer Evans. Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Colloquium Presentations
December 2019
“Commemorating the Armenian Genocide: A Transnational Politics of Memory.” Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) Internal Colloquium, KWI Essen, Germany.
November 2018
“On Monsters and Specters at the Border: The Curious Case of the Monument to Humanity.” Forschungskolloquium Türkeistudien, Institut für Turkistik, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Seminar Presentations
July 2023
“Academy in Exile.” Third Annual International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies, Käte Hamburger Kolleg/ Centre for Global Cooperation Research, University of Duisburg-Essen.
October 2021
“Academy in Exile.” First Annual International Seminar in Historical Refugee Studies, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen.
Interviews
October 2018
“Exile and Academic Freedom Today – Interview with Egemen Özbek”, in TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 16.10.2018. trafo.hypotheses.org/13907.
2006 – 2007
Research assistant to Duygu Köksal in her project “Social Background, Values and Identity in Turkey: Turkish and European Identities”, TUBITAK and Boğaziçi University
2005 – 2007
Research assistant to Hülya Adak in compiling and editing the volume Hundert Jahre Türkei, Project Title: Türkische Bibliothek – The Turkish Library, Sabanci University and the Robert Bosch Foundation
International Conference
“The Unrecognized Genocide: Dersim 1937–1938”, international online conference co-organized with Burak Çopur, Nezahat Gündoğan, Kazım Gündoğan, convened by Kader Konuk and Osman Okkan, University Duisburg-Essen, 18–20 November 2021.
“Exile and Academic Freedom Today,” international conference co-organized with Kader Konuk and Volker Heins, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), Universität Duisburg-Essen, 18–19 October 2018.
Workshop
“Gender Studies in Exile”, international workshop co-organized with Judit Takacs and Volker Heins, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), November 2020.
“Exile Lounge”, workshop co-organized with Volker Heins for the Academy in Exile fellows
Public Lecture
“The Turkishness Contract and the Formation of Turkishness”, virtual public lecture by Barış Ünlü co-organized with Volker Heins, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), November 2020.
“Disciplining (Homo-)Sexuality in State-Socialist Hungary”, virtual public lecture by Judit Takacs, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), October 2020.
Panel
“After the Turkish Elections: Data, Myths, and Narratives,” panel co-organized with Volker Heins, presenters were Dirk Halm, Achim Goerres, İnci Öykü Yener-Roderburg, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), July 2018.
Book Reading and Podium Discussion
“Typisch Deutsch: Ein Gespräch über Zugehörigkeit und Rassismus”, book reading and podium discussion co-organized with Volker Heins and the Literatürk Festival, participants were Ferda Ataman and Marvin Oppong, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI), Universität Duisburg-Essen, November 2019.
Film Screening and Discussion
“Heimat und Exil/Memleket,” film screening and discussion co-organized with Firat Erdogmus and Evrim Kaya, Filmstudio Glückauf, February 2019.
“Newcomers,” film screening and discussion co-organized with André Grahle and Maan Moussli, Filmstudio Glückauf, July 2018.
Exhibition Co-Curation
“Right to Arrive: Topographies of Genocide, Flight, and Hospitality — Then and Now,” exhibition co-curated with Vanessa Agnew and Annette An-Jen Liu, PROMPT Gallery, The Australian National University, Canberra, September 2018.
Invited Talks
Opening Remarks delivered at Voices in Dialogue’s event “Recognition and Peace in the footsteps of Hrant Dink and Tahir Elci: Commemorating Hrant Dink with an afternoon of short films and discussion.” January 24, 2016, Ottawa.
Post-play panel discussant at Tessri Duniya Theatre’s performance of State of Denial on March 25, 2012, and on October 11, 2015, Montréal.