Applying:

To begin the application process for this program, you must first click the APPLY NOW button and email Liz Greenfeld (eae6@georgetown.edu) to schedule an appointment. Just want to talk more about it before you decide?  Feel free to make an appointment to do that as well.

Note: If you are considering multiple programs with varying deadlines, please submit application materials for ALL programs at the earliest deadline. 

About the Program:

Alanya - McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies Program Budget Fall 2013.pdf

Since its creation, the McGhee Center has trained students for a wide range of careers in the private sector, diplomacy, academia, and cultural affairs.  The Center stands out for its role in creating a worldwide network of young leaders in scholarship, business, and international affairs working in Turkey and the wider European, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean Regions.

The curriculum at the McGhee Center is interdisciplinary.  Fall 2013 course offerings are:

ECON 253-62: THE POLITCAL ECONOMY OF THE TURKISH REPUBLIC
(Professor Stephen Strand, 3 Credits)

Following a brief discussion of the last years of the Ottoman Empire, this course will examine the political and economic history of the Turkish Republic from its establishment in 1923 to the present. We will first explore the interplay among the authoritarian regime established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the import substitution industrialization policies implemented by his government, and Turkey’s isolationist foreign policy. Following the introduction of multi-party democracy in Turkey, differences as to desirability of maintaining Atatürk’s social, political and economic policies will be examined as important underlying causes for political instability and subsequent military interventions from the 1950s through the 1970s. The significance of Turgut Özal’s election as prime minister in 1983, and his government’s enactment of export promotion policies, will be discussed as a synthesizing basis for the rapid growth of small and medium-size enterprise in Turkey as well as the electoral success of mildly Islamic political parties over the last 25 years.

ECON 388-62: THE EUROPEAN UNION AND TURKEY
(Professor Stephen Strand, 3 Credits)

Turkey applied for membership in the European Economic Community in 1959, two years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome that ultimately resulted in the formation of the European Union and Eurozone currency area. Over the intervening 53 years, the European Union has added twenty-one new member nations to the original six, yet Turkey’s accession is still being negotiated. This course will first examine the political and economic history of the customs union, common market, and monetary union that characterize European integration in this period. The institutions and policies that implemented the free movement of labor, capital, goods and services in Europe, together with the evolution of the Eurozone and the current sovereign debt crisis, will be discussed in detail. The Turkish application for accession will then be analyzed both in economic terms, such as the relative importance of Turkish manufacturing, agricultural, labor, and financial markets in the negotiations, as well as from broader social, political, and institutional perspectives. These will include the complications created by the 1974 invasion of Northern Cyprus, questions regarding Turkey’s commitment to the protection of minority and human rights, European resistance to the accession of a majority Islamic state, the role of the Turkish army in a democracy, and European fears of Turkish emigration.


CULP 272 -62: THE MUSEUM: ORIENTALIST GAZE AND TURKISH SELF-REPRESENTATION
(Professor Katrin Sieg, 3 Credits)

In this course we will use museums to question the role of institutions to create and maintain the power of elites, and construct collective identities. In the transition from the age of empires to the emergence of nation states, museums became deeply implicated in rivalries over the power to define the world and a people’s place in it. Collections of artworks and artifacts from the Near and Far East served to propagate western notions of the Orient as Europe’s Other, and embed displays of orientalist visual culture in the larger frame of imperialism and colonialism. How did the Ottoman Empire respond to, and counter, western orientalism in its own museums and collections? What role did museums play in culturally imagining modern Turkey? We will look at museums as institutions which have had to adapt and change their missions and functions throughout different historical periods to fit their shifting social and political positions in society. Museum visits, and discussions of the visits, will be worked into the course throughout the semester.

CULP 353-62: GUESTWORKERS TO COSMOPOLITANS: LITERATURE AND CINEMA OF TURKISH MIGRATION
(Professor Katrin Sieg, 3 Credits)

This course examines the history, politics, and cultural representations of Turkish migration to Europe with a focus on Germany. We will take a close look at literary texts and films in order to find out what host societies and immigrants expected of each other, what tensions and problems arose, and how they proposed to solve conflicts. We will study works by some of the key artists whose stories and films have addressed migration and settlement, and ask how they dramatize problems and imply solutions. How do they move spectators to feel for others with whom they do not share the traditional bonds of kin and soil? Finally, how does the scholarship about immigrant culture contribute to discussions about belonging and citizenship in an increasingly mobile age? Students will practice cultural analysis and critical writing skills.

THEO 198-62: ONE LAND, TWO FAITHS: THE RELIGIOUS HISTORIES OF CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM IN MODERN TURKEY
(Professor Lauve H. Steenhuisen, 3 Credits)

Turkey has been home to several global religious traditions, and has served as the background to some of the most significant religious events in Christian and Islamic history. This course will research theological questions such as: Why did the Eastern Orthodox church split from the Roman Catholic in 1054?; What political problems with Islam were the Christian Crusades addressing?; In what ways are mystical movements reactions to an over-politicization in religion?; What pluralistic infighting did the Christian Nicean Creed resolve?. Turkey’s rich cultural, geographic, and religious heritage will surround us as we ask--Why is there no longer a global Islamic caliph?. Through site visits and course assignments, students will be encouraged to connect theology to geopolitics in fresh ways.

THEO 216-62: THE STATE AND THE VEIL: ANALYZING VEILING POLITICS IN TURKEY, ALGERIA, AND FRANCE
(Professor Lauve H. Steenhuisen, 3 Credits)

Turkey has experienced two political revolutions with regard to the veil in the last century--Ataturk’s secular revolution and the rise of Islamic piety in the 1990s. This course will examine the politics of the veil in three nation states, with the primary focus on our host site Turkey. As we visit Istanbul, Ankara, etc. we will discuss how state actors prohibit or promote veiling, and how such actions spark countercultural revolutions. We will analyze how religion can serve as both a liberalizing and conservatizing force, and the role of gender in mobilizing social groups. France as a European case study will form the background for examinations of how colonial history in Algeria and historical religious wars combined to create a public policy inadvertently removing educational access for many Muslim girls. As we travel around Turkey as a learning community, we will examine if veiling is more about religion or politics from the perspective of the state.


All courses (with the exception of Turkish language) are taught in English.  No previous Turkish Language is required.

This program runs in the fall semester only.

For further application information and course descriptions, please visit the McGhee Center's website at: http://mcgheecenter.georgetown.edu/

Student Program Evaluation
Students that participated in this program provided an assessment of their experience. To find detailed information on the following topics, click the links below.   

2008-2009: 8 respondents out of 16 participants



Student Profile (2008-2009)    

Academic, Cultural, & Linguistic Learning (2008-2009)

Program Support & Living Conditions (2008-2009)

Read Mike Madoff's blog on Alanya

Read Chloe Benson's blog on Alanya