Ä°YTE Mimarlık Bölümü AraÅŸtırma Görevlilerimizden sayın Dr. Zeynep Turan, 30 Mayıs 2008 Cuma günü saat 10.30′da, A Blok Seminer Salonunda, “Memory, Identity, and Objects” (’Bellek, Kimlik, ve Nesneler’) konulu bir seminer gerçekleÅŸtirecektir. Tüm öğretim elemanı ve öğrencilerimiz davetlidir.

BIOGRAPHY

Zeynep Turan received her Ph.D. in Environmental Psychology from the CUNY Graduate
Center. She has two Masters degrees; one in Architectural Histories and Theories from the
Architectural Association in London and one in Psychology from the CUNY Hunter College.
She was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon dissertation fellowship in 2006-2007. She has written
about material environments of displaced peoples and their role in shaping collective
memories and narratives.
She also co-created a video documentary of the Salk Institute of Biological Studies (built by
Louis I. Kahn), which looks at how people make meaning in their environments and how
place attachment is constructed. Her research interests range from the meaning of place and of
material environments, to issues of memory, identity, and culture. At present she is focused
on Middle Eastern diasporas in the U.S. and video-ethnography, and most specifically the
relation between material objects and remembering.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT:
Memory, Identity, and Objects
Our guest speaker will present her doctoral dissertation and its methodological tools. The
dissertation “Objects of Legacy” focuses on the significance of material objects for displaced
groups in order to understand what roles these objects take on in terms of collective identity
and collective memory in diaspora. It explores how through the use of objects dislocated
people and their descendants are able to identify with their group and locate themselves
within their collective narrative, nurture a sense of continuity, and pass on traumas caused by
dislocation from one generation to the next.
The study speaks to central debates in the social sciences and the practical challenges of
addressing the uprooted, and asks: “How is culture contained, represented, and reenacted in
objects in the aftermath of displacement?” and “What is the relationship between self,
personal objects, memory, and collective identity?” To address these questions, the
dissertation uses a comparative ethnography based on 41 interviews, participant observation,
historical research, literature, and media coverage.