Humanities Lecture Series
2026 Humanities Lecture Series (HUM 102)
Week 1: “The Science of History and the City of the Ladies: Ibn Khaldun and Christine de Pizan”
Edward Moad (Habib University)
Albert Long Hall, 16 February 2026, 17:00
2025 Humanities Lecture Series (HUM 101)
Week 1: “Introduction to the Semester”
Mujadad Zaman, Amina Nawaz and Betül Avcı (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 22 September 2025, 17:00
Week 2: “Every Skull and Bone Tells a Story: Bioarchaeology and Its Applications in Archaeology”
Rula Nuri Baysan (Yeditepe University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 29 September 2025, 17:00
Week 3: “Homer: Storytelling, Heroes and Tricksters”
Nagihan Haliloğlu (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 06 October 2025, 17:00
Week 4: “The Greek Divide: Plato and Aristotle”
Mujadad Zaman (Boğaziçi University)
Albert Long Hall, 13 October 2025, 17:00
Week 5: “Confucian Benevolence”
Sam Crane (University of Oxford)
Albert Long Hall, 13 October 2025, 17:00
Week 6: “Is Belief Knowledge or Experience? A Comparative Analysis within and beyond the Monotheistic Tradition”
Saeko Yazaki (University of Glasgow)
Albert Long Hall, 27 October 2025, 17:00
Week 7: “Violence and Non-Violence in Ancient India: Resolving Ethical Tensions in the Bhagavad Gita”
Richard King (SOAS, University of London)
Albert Long Hall, 03 November 2025, 17:00
Week 8: “Daily Life in the Roman Empire”
Paolo Maranzana (Boğaziçi University)
Albert Long Hall, 10 November 2025, 17:00
Week 9: “A Lost Heart amid the Veil of Appearances: Reflections on Al-Ghazzali's Intellectual Crisis”
Omneya Ayad (Üsküdar University)
Albert Long Hall, 17 November 2025, 17:00
Week 10: “Agustine and Macrina's Embrace of the Cross in the Following of Christ”
David Dawson Vasquez (University of St. Thomas)
Albert Long Hall, 24 November 2025, 17:00
Week 11: “From Al-Farabi to Maimonides to Talmudic Interpretation Among Ottoman Jewry”
Daniel Boyarin (University of California, Berkeley)
Albert Long Hall, 01 December 2025, 17:00
Week 12: “Geopolitical Ethnographies: European and Islamicate Encounters in the 13th Century”
Adnan Husain (Queen's University)
Albert Long Hall, 08 December 2025, 17:00
Week 12: “When The Land Sings Back: Polyphonic Kinship in the Sayan-Altai Mountains”
Robert O. Beahrs (Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM), Istanbul Technical University)
Albert Long Hall, 15 December 2025, 17:00
2025 Humanities Lecture Series (HUM 102)
Week 1: “Ibn Khaldun and The Cyclical Conception of History”
Mehmet Akif Kayapınar (Istanbul University)
Albert Long Hall, 18 February 2025, 17:00
Week 2: “The Renaissance: Man As the Measure of All Things”
Mujadad Zaman (Boğaziçi University)
Albert Long Hall, 25 February 2025, 17:00
Week 3: “The Fading of Aristotle: Galileo, The Telescope and New Astronomy”
Hasan Umut (Boğaziçi University)
Albert Long Hall, 04 March 2025, 17:00
Week 4: “Advice For Princes: Snapshots from Counsels for Ottoman Sultans”
Fatih Ermiş (Orient Institut Beirut)
Albert Long Hall, 11 March 2025, 17:00
Week 5: “Evliya Çelebi As the Narrator of His Personal History”
Suraiya Faroqhi (Ibn Haldun University)
Albert Long Hall, 18 March 2025, 17:00
Week 6: “The Self and the Collective: From Social Contracts to AI Utopias”
Jonathan Keir (University of Tübingen)
Albert Long Hall, 25 March 2025, 17:00
Week 7: “The Responsibility of Reason: On Kant's 'What is Enlightenment?'”
Christian Schlenker (University of Tübingen)
Albert Long Hall, 08 April 2025, 17:00
Week 8: "The Role of the State in the Economy: Historical, Ideological, and Policy Perspectives"
Mustafa Metin Başbay (Boğaziçi University )
Garanti Cultural Centre, 15 April 2025, 17:00
Week 9: "Responses to Western Modernity: Fukuzawa Yukichi and Japanese Modernism"
Ayşe Selçuk Esenbel (Boğaziçi University )
Albert Long Hall, 22 April 2025, 17:00
Week 10: "Historical Patterns of Resistance and Resilience"
Amina Nawaz (Boğaziçi University )
Garanti Cultural Centre, 06 May 2025, 17:00
2024 Humanities Lecture Series (HUM 101)
Week 1: “Creation Narratives and Foundation Myths”
Nagihan Haliloğlu (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 23 September 2024, 17:00
Week 2: “The Epic of Gilgamesh”
Edward Mitchell (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 30 September 2024, 17:00
Week 3: "The Homeric Question: Authorship, Authority and Performance in the Odyssey"
Matthew Gumpert (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 7 October 2024, 17:00
Week 4: "The Greek Divide: Plato and Aristotle"
Mujadad Zaman (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 14 October 2024, 17:00
Week 5: "The Way and Ethics: Confucianism and Daoism in Perspective"
Z. Hale Eroğlu Sağer (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 21 October 2024, 17:00
Week 7: "Why Did Lacan Liken Himself to Ibn Arabi (and What Does It Have to Do with Plato)?"
Victoria Rowe Holbrook
Garanti Cultural Centre, 04 November 2024, 17:00
Week 8: "Life at the Time of the Roman Empire"
Paolo Maranzana (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 11 November 2024, 17:00
Week 9: "St. Augustine on Peace and War"
Aaron Looney (Universität Tübingen)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 18 November 2024, 17:00
Week 10: "Origins of Islamic Thought"
Jonathan A.C. Brown (Georgetown University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 25 November 2024, 17:00
Week 11: CANCELLED!
Garanti Cultural Centre, 02 December 2024, 17:00
Week 12: "The World was Never Flat: Travel Literature in Medieval Islam"
Amina Nawaz (Boğaziçi University)
Garanti Cultural Centre, 09 December 2024, 17:00
