Learning from Past Mistakes and Living a Better Life: Report on the Workshop in Istanbul on “Ottoman Ego-Documents”

A workshop entitled “Ottoman Ego-Documents” was held at Istanbul Medeniyet University on March 11–13, 2020. The workshop was organized by Istanbul Medeniyet University's Faculty of Letters in collaboration with the Center for Ego-Document Studies and supported by the Turkish Historical Society and the Foundation for Science, Art, History and Literature (İSTEV). It was attended by specialists in history, literature, law, and theology. This event marked the first time in Turkey that this topic was discussed with a large scope. The only previous organized discussion in Turkey on “ego-documents” seems to have been “Autobiographical Themes in Turkish Literature: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives,” held jointly by Boğaziçi University and the Orient-Institut der DMG in 2003. This discussion was mostly theoretical and the material covered belonged mainly to the post-Tanzimat era. A volume edited by Olcay Akyıldız, Halim Kara, and Börte Sagaster, the organizers of that event, was subsequently published by Ergon.

The Refugee Camp as Site of Multiple Encounters and Realizations

Literature in Human Geography has given much attention to “encounters” and their impact on negotiating difference in everyday life. These studies, however, have focused solely on cities, while “other” spaces like refugee camps have received little attention to date. In this paper, I highlight the significance of “encounters” in camps by exposing three main types: the “refugee-refugee,” the “refugee-humanitarian,” and the “refugee-more-than-human” encounters. Using empirical examples from Zaatari camp in Jordan, I show that the “refugee-refugee” encounters cannot be fully understood without taking refugees’ culture, background, and urban identities into consideration. I also explain how the “refugee-humanitarian” encounters result in new types of behaviors and might harden the boundaries between both groups. And lastly, I demonstrate how the “refugee-more-than-human” encounters can inform us about refugees’ unique experiences with shelters, space, and materiality. Building on the examples given for each type, this article suggests that “encounters” have the ability to generate knowledge and learnings, which contributes to shaping the space of the camp by either enforcing boundaries between different groups and/or by allowing new and hybrid spatialities to emerge. This not only confirms that “encounters” are an important entry point in understanding the socio-spatial and material composition of refugee camps, but also that further studies in this regard are direly needed. It also suggests that architects and planners need to allow for the “new” to emerge as a result of these encounters and, therefore, to enable flexibility and adaptability within camps’ design and planning.