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Introduction JOTSA’s Fall 2015 special issue entitled “Interdisciplinary Turkish Studies” is co-edited by Dr. Kent F. Schull (Binghamton University, SUNY) and guest editor Dr. Sinan Ciddi (Georgetown University and Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies). Six out of the eight articles for this issue originated from a special conference entitled “Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches in the Field of Turkish Studies” which was organized by Sinan Ciddi, Rita Koriyan, and Kent Schull and graciously supported and hosted by ITS and Northwestern University’s Buffett Center for Comparative and International Affairs in October 2014. The purpose of this conference and special issue is to highlight the diverse and exciting work being done in disciplines outside of the traditional approaches to Turkish studies. The deeper history of this special issue dates back to 2002–3 when ITS convened a workshop and completed a book project to survey the field of Turkish studies within the United States. Edited by Sabri Sayari and the late Donald Quataert, Turkish Studies in the United States evaluated the nature of academic research being conducted on the Ottoman world and modern Turkey across various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities, identifying existing strengths and weaknesses.1 In 2013, ITS, in collaboration with Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies decided that it was worth revisiting the Quataert and Sayari project, especially in light of the vast expansion of the field of Turkish studies evidenced by the dramatic increase in the number of scholarly articles, books, and conferences related to the field. Scholars from Europe and the United States were invited to contribute articles, firstly to evaluate the standing of the field as of 2013 (building and reflecting on Quataert and Sayari’s work), and, secondly, to emphasize the increasing interdisciplinary and comparative research that has come to typify the academic 1. D. Quataert and S. Sayarı, Turkish Studies in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Publications, 2003). Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 221–224 Copyright © 2015 Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. doi:10.2979/jottturstuass.2.2.01 study of Turkey. The proceedings of this discussion, edited by Sinan Ciddi and Paul Levin were subsequently published in a special volume of Turkish Studies in December 2014.2 Whilst the Ciddi and Levin study concentrated on predominantly highlighting developments within the social science disciplines of political science and history, this special volume of JOTSA, edited by Kent Schull and Sinan Ciddi, represents “phase two” of the project, tracing progress and highlighting interdisciplinarity and comparison specifically within other fields of the social sciences and the humanities, such as anthropology, urban studies, the graphic arts, architecture, art history, linguistics, and gender studies. The eight scholarly articles included in this issue represent some of the best of interdisciplinary research found across the various disciplines within the social sciences and humanities. They also demonstrate the vibrant and diverse work being done within the broader field of Ottoman and Turkish studies from the early modern period to the present. These path-breaking articles investigate the “written sources” of Ottoman art, specifically the biographical dictionary of Mustafa Âli’s Epic Deeds of Artists for how it self-referentially ranks, appraises, and evaluates various artists during the early-modern Ottoman period according to the author’s target audience (Esra Akın-Kıvanç); the political , medical, and cultural influences on Turkey’s adoption and deployment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a means to identify, treat, and deal with war trauma in Turkey over the past three decades (Salih Can Aciksoz); the “distinctive convergence of seismic activity, psychiatric expertise, and bureaucratic regimes of property and charity in post-disaster Turkey” as individuals in Saddam’s Homes attempted to keep their homes in the face of relentless local political attempts to displace them in the wake of the devastating 1999 Marmara earthquake (Christopher Dole); personal reactions and reflections to ongoing events in contemporary Turkey through graphic art and text (Özge Samancı); the rise of the occult among millennial Turks and the intersection between neoconservative and neoliberal economic deployment of “blessings” to reinforce traditional familial roles...

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