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Special Report from Alanya, Turkey
Sylvia Wing Önder
Published in 2006
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In the snowy mid-January weather of Istanbul, Turkey, our group met
for the orientation for Georgetown University’s spring semester program
at the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. We visited
sites of historical and architectural importance, heard lectures on a wide
range of topics by leading Turkish experts, viewed priceless museum
collections, and even attended a soccer match. Then, after a high-level
series of appointments in Ankara, including lunch in the Parliament
building, we boarded our bus to come south through a snowy mountain pass
to Alanya and the McGhee Center, housed in an Ottoman villa high on
a rocky summit extending into the Mediterranean Sea. Then the real
work began!
Every student attending the McGhee Program takes the same classes.
Dr. Scott Redford’s courses are “An Introduction to the History of Architecture
(Ancient, Classical, Medieval) from the Monuments of Turkey” and
“A History of the Crusades.” My courses are “Cross-Cultural Encounters in
Literature: The Ottoman Legacy” and “Contemporary Cultural Politics in
Turkey: From the Village to the Internet.” Each student also takes a Turkish
language class tailored to their own level. This year’s group of thirteen
undergraduates is particularly diverse in terms of language background: nine
students (eight Hoyas and one Princeton Tiger) came with no prior Turkish
language training, one UC Berkeley student came with one semester, two
students (one Hoya and one Tiger) came with a year and a semester of
Turkish, and the student from St. Mary’s College ia heritage Turkish
speaker.
For the first time this year, students at the McGhee Program have the option
of adding one unit of credit for Community-Based Learning (CBL)to
my Contemporary Cultural Politics course. The four students who have
opted for the extra credit are teaching English in a rural public school and
also will be helping with a few spring environmental events sponsored by
TEMA, a Turkish environmental foundation concerned with erosion
control and reforestation.
So, after the orientation in Istanbul and Ankara, my time in Alanya is
spent teaching my two classes, coordinating Turkish placement, advising
CBL students’ projects, hosting various visitors and lecturers who
come to the villa, and taking care of various dormitory issues and student
concerns. At the end of March, I also managed to fit in a workshop in
Halle, Germany on the topic of “The Social Dimensions of Understanding
Illness and Healing: Islamic Societies from Africa to Central Asia,” where
I presented on “Nazar in Context: Contemporary Turkish manifestations
of a traditional Islamic Concept.” Participating in the McGhee Center
Semester Abroad is a well-rounded and fulfilling experience, connecting
me with various Turkish and European intellectuals and personalities,
involving intense interactions with a small group of motivated and talented
students, giving me a chance to discuss pedagogical issues with other
language teachers, and allowing me to conduct some in-country research
on my main topic of contemporary cultural politics.
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