The Office of Global Programs has announced the Columbia-Bogaziçi Summer Program in Balkan Transcultural Studies, a new summer study abroad program in Istanbul that will be offered in summer 2016.

The program, based at Bogaziçi University but with some classes and events taking place at the Columbia Global Center | Turkey, is designed to give students a deeper understanding of Balkan societies through courses that explore the multiplicity of cultures, languages and religions in the Balkans. Coursework will focus on religious diversity in the region and will present a dynamic vision of the Ottoman Balkan culture and the Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions that intertwined to create it. Students will gain insight into historical patterns of interreligious conflict, competition and creative compromise and the strategies for negotiating, representing and performing these fraught relationships in distinct cultural forms.

The program combines an international instructional network with opportunities for guided individual research, collaboration with cultural institutions in Istanbul, and acquisition of practical skills for applying new technologies to documenting and analyzing urban history and culture. All students will enroll in The Muslim and the Christian in Balkan Narratives, taught by Valentina Izmirlieva, associate professor of Slavic languages and chair of the Department of Slavic Languages, as well as in Balkan Cultural Controversies: History and Theory, taught by Alexander Kiossev, professor of cultural studies at Sofia University. Seniors and graduate students will have the option of enrolling in an independent study.

Learn more about the Columbia-Bogaziçi Summer Program in Balkan Transcultural Studies program.

This program was developed with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.