Cities as Palimpsests? Responses to Antiquity in Eastern Mediterranean Urbanism, ANAMED Talk with Elizabeth Key Fowden (University of Cambridge), Suna Çağaptay (University of Cambridge), and Edward Zychowicz-Coghill (King’s College London), Göksun Akyürek (Bahçeşehir University), Assaad Seif (Lebanese University), Caroline Goodson (University of Cambridge), and Emre Erkal (METU), Koç University via Zoom, June 16, 2022, 6:30 pm (Istanbul Time)

This ANAMED talk will feature Elizabeth Key Fowden, former ANAMED fellow Suna Çağaptay, Edward Zychowicz-Coghill, Göksun Akyürek, Assaad Seif and Caroline Goodson. Moderated by Emre Erkal, their talk will address Palimpsest which is the word they reach for as shorthand for the historical complexity and cultural hybridity of the eastern Mediterranean city. But does this fashionable trope slyly force us to see contradiction where local inhabitants saw (and see) none, to impose distinctions that satisfy our own assumptions about historical periodization and cultural practice, but bear little relation to the experience of ancient, medieval, early modern or modern persons? By visualizing the city as distinctive strata do they blind ourselves to the porosity of urban tissue? The origins of this volume can be traced back to a three-day conference in May 2018 hosted by Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul, during which they discussed the usefulness of the city palimpsest trope.

This online talk will be held in English. Advance registration required.

Elizabeth Key Fowden is senior research associate in Classics and fellow of the Centre of Islamic Studies at Cambridge; and co-PI of the Cambridge-Stockholm project Greece between Europe and Asia.

Suna Çağaptay is a research associate on the Impact of the Ancient City project at the University of Cambridge and a postdoctoral research associate at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

Edward Zychowicz-Coghill is Lecturer in the History of Asia at King’s College London.

Göksun Akyürek is currently an assistant professor and teaching architectural design and history at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul.

Assaad Seif is an archaeologist, University Professor, and UNESCO / ICOMOS Heritage Expert with 30 years of experience.

Caroline Goodson is University Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval History at University of Cambridge and a Fellow of King's College.

Emre Erkal is an architect teaching architectural studios and computational design at METU Department of Architecture and conducting projects in historic city centers of Istanbul and Antalya where issues of archaeology, conservation, cultural heritage, geography and technology intersect.