About Us
The Archives and Documentation Center, located in Barnum House (also known as the Lodge No. 8) since 2015, was established with the aim of bringing together and presenting to researchers the personal and institutional archival documents that are donated to or acquired by the Boğaziçi University.
As Boğaziçi University Archive and Documentation Center, we aimed to bring together archives, which are crucial and valuable for the construction of the institutional memory and history of Robert College, American College for Girls and Boğaziçi University, under the roof of the institution where they were first produced. Our efforts also focus on private archives and collections donated to Boğaziçi University, which we believe will contribute to research in various disciplines such as history, archaeology, literature, politics and architecture. Here at the Center, our primary goal is to provide an ideal conservation space for documents and objects that have been kept safe for so many years as a result of individual dedication and diligent efforts, as well as to catalogue, digitize and finally open them to researchers. We hope that the nature of the documents and the quality of the work we engage in here will encourage further donations to Boğaziçi University in the future.
The institutional archives and private collections housed at our Center are comprised of valuable written and visual documents in the fields of history, architecture, archaeology, art history, literature, politics, foreign policy and hard sciences that will shed light on the historical periods of late Ottoman and Modern Turkey. These documents provide insight into everyday practices and urban realities of many Anatolian cities, thus contributing to the cultural heritage of not only İstanbul but also other localities. The archives and collections, which characterize not only the extraordinary moments of everyday life, but also its ordinary aspects, harbor the potential to deepen and broaden monotonous narratives of history. Once again, making these institutional and personal archives available to the public is of utmost significance.
The Archives and Documentation Center is currently running the project “Histories of Science, Culture and Education in İstanbul through Personal Archives”, which commenced on 15 December 2016. Supported by the İstanbul Development Agency (İSTKA) under the “Innovative and Creative İstanbul Financial Support Program”, the project involves the classification, cataloging and digitization of the existing collections and archives.
Staff
Cengiz Kırlı
Prof. Dr. Cengiz Kırlı received his BA degree from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at METU in 1989 and his MA degree from the Department of Political Science of the same university in 1993. He continued his doctoral studies at Binghamton University and earned his PHD degree in 2000 with the thesis titled "The Struggle Over Space: Coffeehouses of Ottoman, Istanbul, 1780-1845". After teaching in the U.S. at Binghamton University and Purdue University, since 2003, Kırlı is a faculty member at Atatürk Institute of Modern Turkish History in Boğaziçi University. He is the author of two books, "Sultan ve Kamuoyu: Osmanlı Modernleşme Sürecinde "Havadis Jurnalleri" (1840-1844) (2009) and "Yolsuzluğun İcadı" (2015) as well as many articles. Currently at the Center, he works as the "Center Coordinator".
Nurçin İleri
She completed her BA degree at Boğaziçi University, Western Languages and Literature Department in 2004 and her MA degree at Boğaziçi University, Atatürk Institute of Modern Turkish History in 2006. In 2015, she completed her doctoral dissertation on the night, streets and crime in the late Ottoman Istanbul at the History Department of Binghamton University. She continues her work on urban history and conducts research on the history of technology and emotions. For the last three years, she has been working with Cengiz Kırlı on the existing collections housed at Boğaziçi University. Currently at the Center, she works as the "Assistant Coordinator".
Abdurrahman Can Kurtan
He received his BA degree from the Computer Engineering Department at Boğaziçi University in 2016. The same year, he started the MA program in Computer Engineering at the same university. He works on applied artificial intelligence for his MA research. During the last year of his undergraduate studies, he worked for a year in a private company as a part of the web and business tracking systems development department. Currently at the Center, he works as an "IT Specialist" responsible for the website development and establishment of “open access” infrastructure.
Aude Aylin de Tapia
She received her BA and MA degrees in History from the Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg, in 2007 and 2009 respectively. In 2009, she moved to Istanbul to pursue a joint doctoral research at Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Boğaziçi University and Paris EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales). Between the years 2011-2016, she worked as a cataloging specialist and researcher at various digital humanities projects at IFEA (İstanbul French Institute of Anatolian Studies). In 2016, she defended her doctoral dissertation Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Cappadocia: Intercommunal relations in an Ottoman Rural Context (1839-1923). Currently at the Center, she is working as the "Catalogue Specialist". She also takes part in the sorting and cataloging of Ottoman Turkish, Turkish, French and English documents as an “Archive Specialist”.
Başak Deniz Özdoğan
After completing her BA degree in Turkish Language and Literature and her MA degree in Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University, she worked as a teacher. Later, she started the PHD program at the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University. She worked as a research assistant for 4 years at this department. Currently, she is working on her doctoral dissertation about Fatma Aliye. At the Center, she works on the sorting and cataloging of Ottoman Turkish, English and French documents as an "Archive Specialist".
Özgül Özdemir
In 2017, she received her MA degree from the History Department at Boğaziçi University with her thesis titled African Slaves in the 19th Century Ottoman Empire. During her MA studies, she participated in conferences in Latin America on comparative slavery and did research and worked as a personal assistant at the Ottoman Archives (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi). She will continue her PHD studies in Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University. Currently at the Center, she is working on the sorting and cataloging of German, Ottoman Turkish and English documents as an “Archive Specialist”. She particularly focuses on the collection of Traugott Fuchs.
Anna Vakali
She completed her BA degree at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2003. In 2007, she received her MA degree from Boğaziçi University. She first started her PHD studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg (Germany) and later, after the change of the affiliation of her supervisor, Prof. Dr. Reinkowski, she continued her studies at the University of Basel (Switzerland). She received her PHD degree in May 2017 with the dissertation titled Tanzimat in the Province: Nationalist Sedition, Banditry and Local Councils in the Ottoman Southern Balkans (1840s to 1860s). Since February 2017, she is a Post-Doc Fellow at the project ‘Between Sultan and Emperor: Imperial Legacies, Religion, and Governance in Ottoman-Habsburg Borderlands, 1800-1900’ at the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Historical Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Currently at the Center, she works as an "Archive Specialist" focusing on the documents in German, Modern Greek, Turkish and Ottoman Turkish. She particularly deals with the collection of Traugott Fuchs.
Abbas Bozkurt
After graduating from Boğaziçi University, Psychology Department in 2008, he completed his MA degree in Critical and Cultural Studies Program at the same university in 2011. Since 2008, he authors film and literature criticisms for media outlets such as Altyazı Monthly Cinema Journal, Sabit Fikir, Time Out Istanbul, and K24. Between 2015-2017, he gave classes as a visiting lecturer at the Radio, Television and Cinema Department at Nişantaşı University. He also undertook the tasks of editing published and online materials at Altyazı Monthly Cinema Journal and Time Out Istanbul. Currently at the Center, he works as the "Digitization Specialist".
İpek Tabur
After graduating from the Department of History at Boğaziçi University in 2004, she completed her MA studies at Boğaziçi University, Department of History in 2008; Oxford University, Department of History in 2009; Central European University, Department of Gender Studies in 2016. Between 2006-2016, she translated books, articles and subtitles. In 2015-2016, she worked as an editor at an art institution in Istanbul. Currently at the Center, she works as the "Project Media and Content Editor".
