Spatial Politics in Istanbul: Turning Points in Contemporary Turkey

Over the past decade, the AKP, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has decisively turned Turkish politics in the direction of conservative Islamic national identity. A specific ideological framework undergirded the AKP’s conception of the built environment, the plans it implemented to transform it and the forms of resistance that these plans generated. This framework is termed Erdoğanian Neo-Ottomanism and describes AKP’s use of the power of the state to shape public surroundings in their social and ideological image. By utilising an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates religion, politics and space, Courtenay Dorroll and Philip Dorroll focus on the role of the Turkish state under the AKP in the restoration of traditional Islamic and Neo-Ottoman imagery and iconography.

This book explores the momentous shifts in power during this crucial decade in Turkish history through an analysis of four case studies. The 2010 designation of Istanbul as the European Capital of Culture, the 2013 Gezi Park protests, the Monument to the Martyrs of July 15 and associated memorial practices related to the 2016 coup attempt and the transition of Hagia Sophia from museum to mosque in 2020 - these are identified as the most prominent ways in which the AKP has restructured public spaces in Istanbul to reflect its values. The authors scrutinise this phenomenon and intentional transformation of the physical landscape through an accessible but interpretive method that uncovers issues crucial to understanding Turkey’s most recent history.

Courtney Dorroll is an Associate Professor of Religion and founding Coordinator of the Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENA) Program at Wofford College where she teaches courses on Middle Eastern Studies, ethnography and self-care. She dedicates time to the scholarship of teaching and learning, finding ways to make classrooms more inclusive and sustainable, and self-care as a form of leadership and a pedagogical approach. She was an invited research fellow and subsequent Teach@Tubingen instructor at the University of Tubingen and research fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Economics’ Entrepreneurial, Growth and Public Policy Group. Courtney is driven to innovate and internationalize higher education. She is a 2022-2023 American Council on Education Fellow. She has published widely on the scholarship of teaching and learning. She is co-authoring Radical Care: Pedagogies of the Heart with Sonya Maria Johnson (under contract with University of Wyoming Press), outlining how to incorporate care into one’s classroom. Her edited volume Teaching Islamic Studies in the Age of ISIS, Islamophobia, and the Internet (Indiana University Press) brought together scholars to discuss critical issues currently impacting the study and teaching of Islam in the West. Her research has been funded by the Council of Independent Colleges’ NetVUE Program Development Grant, the Stevens Initiative for Virtual Exchange, and the Andrew K. Mellon Foundation. She leads workshops on self-care pedagogy for educators, teaching Islam and area studies at universities and colleges in the US and abroad. She received her B.A. from Purdue University, her M.A. from Indiana University and her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.

Philip Dorroll is an Associate Professor of Religion at Wofford College and Co-Chair of the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion. He teaches courses on Islamic Studies and Eastern Christian Studies, such as Introduction to Islam, Premodern Islam, Contemporary Islam, Eastern Christianity, and Christian and Islamic Theology in Comparative Perspective. His published research has focused on the history of Islamic theology in classical Arabic and modern Turkish, the history of Eastern Christian theology in classical Arabic, and the historical relationship between Muslims and Eastern Orthodox Christians. His current work focuses on issues of human rights and comparative theology in the study of Islam and Orthodox Christianity, especially with a view toward understanding what these traditions’ interactions with one another can teach us about the possibilities of pluralism and the advancement of human rights in contemporary societies. His other published work includes Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic from Edinburgh University Press and the edited volume Māturīdī Theology: A Bilingual Reader from Mohr Siebeck (with Lejla Demiri and Dale Correa). He is currently co-chair of the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion and a member of the editorial board for the journal SALT: An Orthodox Journal of Cross-Cultural Theology, Dialogue, and Mission. He received his B.A. from Purdue University, his M.A. from Indiana University and his Ph.D. from Emory University.