Lanfranco Aceti: “As an academic, what you can do for yourself is limited.  Life may be short, but your legacy in an institution can live on.  My purpose is to give more power to my students, to empower them.”

When our Secretary-General Haluk Bal found out that I was going to interview you, he shared an impression of you: he said that, during the preparations for ISEA2011, you managed to get what you want within our outside the university thanks to your assertive and positive personality, that you did not take no for an answer and never stopped smiling or trying, even when faced with difficulties. And this was ony months after you had come to Turkey and Sabancı.
It is great to hear these from the Secretary-General, and important to me as an academic.  There are things that Sabancı University wants to do.  Institutions have much longer lives than the people in them.  Together with your institution, you have personal ideals, conceptions about how you want the world to be, and you strive towards these.  As an academic, what you can do for yourself is limited.  Life may be short, but your legacy in an institution can live on.  Right now, Sabancı University needs to encourage young students to go abroad, be involved in international work, and make a contribution when they come back here.  Therefore, my purpose is to give more power to my students, to empower them.  I like to support my students and lead them in this direction.  I think we should have a doctorate program in visual culture in our faculty – as far as I know, there are no such programs in Turkey.  This would have the added benefit of attracting students who will work with us for a long time.

Why did you choose Sabancı University?
It was somewhat a coincidence.  I had a Turkish friend at Central Saint Martins in England.  We had known each other for a long time, so when this position was announced he asked me if I would apply.  Actually it was funny because first he asked if I had a problem with Turkey.  I said, “Good weather, good food, city by the coast, what problem could I have?”  He said, “Well, you know the situation there is a little tense,” probably referring to the Islamic tradition and religious factors.  I said, “We’ve known each other for 10 years, did we ever have any issues between us?” to which he responded no, and then I said “Then why should I have a problem with your country?” and decided to apply.  I was offered the job and I moved here.

There is one more thing: they say that you need to have friends in critical places to succeed in Turkey.  Funnily enough, I knew no one here, I had no family, no connections, and I applied without pulling any strings, and I was accepted.  I know from Italy that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know there.  Here I noticed that if you work hard, you are indeed given the opportunity to get what you want, as Haluk said, and that is what I did: I worked hard and got what was rightfully mine.  There is a saying in Italian: Perspiration remains.  If you make a real effort to do something, if you sweat and toil over it, you will be left with a permanent skill or capability.  You could reach places through your influential friends, but it won’t take you far.  When you learn something by cutting your teeth on it, no one can take away your knowledge and experience; those will stay with you for the rest of your life.

That is some important gain.
It is, indeed.

You were born in Italy, you went to school partly in Italy and partly in the UK, you started your academic career there, and now you continue in Turkey.  What are your impressions of these three countries on education, customs and other aspects?
I went to university in Urbino, Italy, which I loved.  It is a medieval town with a great museum and a lovely piazza.  One of the exhibits in the museum was Raphael’s “La Muta,” and I would spend hours viewing it.  University buildings were scattered around town.  The town had two hills and there were two lecture halls on those hills, so I had to run right through the town in the ten-minute recess between classes to make it to the next one.  Charging up and down the hill every day had given us huge leg muscles.  If you had nothing to do in town, you could just sit in the piazza and watch students run to and fro; it was fun!

My life in England was much different.  I loved the view there – the leaden sky and green surroundings.  Green in England is deep and bright, I loved that.  One of the things that I noticed the most was strict compliance with the rules.  You had rules about how to do a certain thing, and everyone would abide by that.  I was very comfortable working there because I knew exactly how everything was supposed to be done – that was not the case in Italy.  I had my favorite places there, like the botanical gardens, galleries, art institutions, and museums like the National Portrait Museum and Tate Modern.  There is no shortage of artistic activity there.  Now we work with some of the world-renowned institutions in the UK for things we do at Kasa Galeri.  We collaborate with the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths' College to take Kasa Galeri to an international platform.

As for students at Sabancı, those who take the museums and contemporary art courses this year start to learn what it means to be a curator, how much research a curator has to do to create an exhibition.  I want my students to be aware of these.

Can you compare Italy, UK and Turkey for student behavior?
Students are students; there isn’t much difference between them.  Class participation does differ though; some countries have different customs.  It is important for students to know how to discuss things among themselves or with the lecturer.  My students have begun to learn how to take permission to speak, when to intervene, how to discuss.  This might be the difference in America, England or Canada – some classes are quieter, some have more class participation.  There are distinct differences in Italy as this has to do with tradition.  We had to learn Classic Greek and Latin in high school.  We had a teacher whose desk and chair would sit on a high platform so she could see us like the omniscient eye of God.  She would call us to the desk one at a time and do an oral exam for one hour.  I’ve seen easier police interrogations!  She would open a Greek or Latin book, cover the translation and tell us to translate the page.  She would ask us who the author was and what his other works were; she could pick a word and ask about its grammatical properties…  And during all this time she would be sitting so high that we could barely see the top of the desk.

Sounds quite imposing.  What courses do you give here?
I give visual culture, new media, museums and contemporary art classes.  I have my dissertation students as well.

Thank you for this conversation, Lanfranco.

“Sabancı Entrepreneurship Summit I” took place in Adana

Sabancı University MBA Club began the Entrepreneurship Seminars series to propagate the nationwide expansion of the entrepreneurial vision.  Held in the name of Sakıp Sabancı, one of Turkey’s leading entrepreneurs, the series kicked off in Adana on April 11, 2013 in partnership with the Çukurova University Synergy Club.

Ranking first on the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology’s “University Entrepreneurship and Innovation Index,” Sabancı University’s MBA Club held the Sabancı Entrepreneurship Summit I in Adana, at the Çukurova University Medical School “Hippocrates” Hall on Thursday, April 11, 2013.  Sponsored by the Sabancı Foundation, the summit aims to foster the nationwide adoption of entrepreneurship and encourage young people to look for opportunities.

Held in partnership with the Çukurova University Synergy Club, the event featured Sabancı University Faculty Member Dr. Selim Balcısoy on “The Roadmap of the Entrepreneur”, Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) Secretary-General Mete Çakmakçı on “The DNA of Entrepreneurship”, Galata Business Angels Founding Partner Serhat Görgün on “Entrepreneurship from the Investor Perspective” and Yemeksepeti.com Founder Melih Ödemiş on “The Story of Internet Entrepreneurship in Turkey since 2000: Yemeksepeti.com”

"Be ready to restart every day"
Sabancı University Faculty Member Dr. Selim Balcısoy emphasized that entrepreneurship is not done just for money, and that while entrepreneurs must enjoy what they do, their ideas must be meaningful for the lives of people.  Speaking on the importance of working in newly-founded companies, Dr. Balcısoy said it was very important to understand the dynamics there.  Dr. Balcısoy urged young entrepreneurs to act fast, and said, "Losing is in the nature of this business; be ready to restart every day."

What it takes to be a good entrepreneur
Speaking on “The DNA of Entrepreneurship," Mete Çakmakçı, Secretary-General of the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV), said that entrepreneurship is acquired by developing one's own personality skills.  Çakmakçı said that the main expectation from an entrepreneur was the ability to offer the right product or service at the right time and place.  Mete Çakmakçı explained that the entrepreneur was a person who had the capability and motivation to leverage existing tools and possibilities to create a new value.  Defining the personality traits of successful entrepreneurs, Mete Çakmakçı stressed self-awareness, curiosity, effective listening, compelling storytelling, questioning and organizational skills.

Spotting a strong investor
Galata Business Angels Founding Partner Serhat Görgün spoke on “Entrepreneurship from the Investor Perspective," explaining ways for entrepreneurs to access financing and investors, and told prospective entrepreneurs what to watch out for when contacting investors.  Görgün explained how investors assess potential entrepreneurs, and gave tips to entrepreneurs for evaluating potential investors.  According to Görgün, strong investors invest in people not trends, move to look for great ideas, are not afraid of failure, know how to manage portfolios and support portfolio companies, are good coaches, and do not wait for other investors to take the lead.

The success story of Yemeksepeti.com
In his lecture titled “The Story of Internet Entrepreneurship in Turkey since 2000: Yemeksepeti.com,” founder Melih Ödemiş shared his experiences since the foundation of the website.

Lectures were followed by questions from the floor.  Participants received certificates at the end of the event.

Lanfranco Aceti: “I don’t believe in stereotypes.  Sometimes, when I think that the popular belief is wrong, I do just the opposite specifically to prove it wrong.”

Lanfranco Aceti is a professor of modern art and digital culture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.  As an artist, curator, academic and researcher, his work is known extensively throughout the world.  He has had exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), and Tate Modern in London, the Venice Biennale, and the Museum of Modern Art.  He is the director of the Kasa Galeri in our building in Karaköy, and the editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac, an MIT publication.  Finally, he is a visiting professor at the University of London Goldsmiths College.  Doing so many things at once, Lanfranco managed to bring ISEA, the world’s largest electronic arts festival, to Istanbul and Turkey only 4 months after his arrival at Sabancı University. 

We spoke with Lanfranco on how he prepared for ISEA2011 and his experiences in Italy and the UK.

Lanfranco, how long have you been in Turkey?  What were your first impressions of Istanbul?
We came here four and a half years ago, in August 2008.  Like every other tourist, we first stayed in Sultanahmet, but since we didn’t know what was expecting us once we moved to the campus, we decided to look for bedding and other stuff in Sultanahmet.  This being a touristic place, we couldn’t, of course, and then we got into the Grand Bazaar and got lost.  There we saw a shop selling traditional quilts, and the shop owner thankfully helped us.  He gave us the stuff to put in the pillow, so I had a huge plastic bag in my hand.  He even arranged for a car to take us from the Bazaar all the way to Tuzla, and came with us for the ride.  There was some really cheerful music playing on the way; that was a great trip for me.  It was my first time in Istanbul and we were traveling from the city center to the campus in a car.  I had felt that the city was immense and there was simply no end to it.  The city extends for great distances in every direction.  People were very helpful, they would get out of their way and do their best.  This used to be the case in Europe, but it’s changing recently.  People are helpful and hardworking to boot.  But there is so much bureaucracy that no matter how hard you work, the end result isn’t commensurable with the effort.  If it weren’t for the bureaucracy, a lot more could be achieved for all this hard work.

Had you been in Turkey before working at Sabancı?
Yes, I came here first when I was 18.

Lanfranco, you are of Italian origin and you have Italian and British nationalities.  You are an artist, a curator and an academic.  You came to Sabancı as an academic, right?
Right.

As far as I know, you brought an important international event to Sabancı—you held the ISEA (Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts) “International Electronic Arts Symposium” in Istanbul.  Can you talk about this?
When I decided to move to Istanbul, some of my academic friends thought it was exciting and that there were lots to be done in Istanbul.  Others told me that I would be effectively killing my career.  But I don’t believe in stereotypes.  Sometimes, when I think that the popular belief is wrong, I do just the opposite specifically to prove it wrong.

So you like a good fight.
Absolutely.  I have been swimming against the current for too long.  When I moved here, I had plans about organizing ISEA2011.  Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac, an international MIT publication on arts, science and technology, was quitting and they needed a new editor.  I wanted to do both, so I applied for both.  We brought ISEA2011 to Istanbul, and I became the editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac.  ISEA2011 in Istanbul was the 17th event in the series.  This year, the 19th event will take place in Sydney, but since some organizers have been involved in more than one event, there are 15 “ISEA Chairs” in the world at the moment.  These people are art directors and conference chairs.  The fact that there are 15 academics in the world who have organized ISEA shows what a large event it is.  We had ISEA here in September 2011.  It was difficult, but it was an important event for the university nevertheless.  This led to a marked increase in how well Sabancı was known on an international level for its work on media, art and the relationship between art, science and technology.  Many academics from University of Sydney to MIT, Sorbonne and Tokyo have now heard of Sabancı in this area.  I have had extraordinary students during both the organization and event stages.  

Özden Şahin, Deniz Cem Önduygu and Mehveş Çetinkaya worked day and night to make this a reality; if it weren’t for them, this wouldn’t have happened.  Özden Şahin was the conference and program director.  Deniz Cem Önduygu took care of all the design work, and Mehveş Çetinkaya, a Sabancı graduate who joined us in the last six months, organized the conference and exhibition.  That made me understand that coming to Istanbul wasn’t a fatal blow to my career but the onset of wonderful opportunities.

And some excitement.
Definitely.

Difficulties, challenges, excitement, adrenaline…
Good food.

The food is good, there is a lot of excitement and not much routine.
Yes.

Once it was decided to have Sabancı organize ISEA2011 in Istanbul, there was a lot of preparation to do.  I believe you had already planned what event would take place where.  Then there were the negotiations with the city council and the ferry lines.  How long did the preparations take?
Our application was accepted in the spring of 2009.  I had arrived in the summer of 2008, and I started straight away.  In other words, we had gotten ISEA2011 four months after I began working at Sabancı.  This took a semester, but I knew what I wanted to do beforehand anyway.

You knew what you wanted to do, you came here knowing it, and you dove headfirst into the efforts four months after you arrived: you would have to work within foreign bureaucracy, talk to people whose culture you didn’t know, explain what you wanted to do to public authorities, negotiate with the city and ferry lines, convince them to support ISEA… How did all this come to pass?
The bureaucracy is difficult indeed, but our administrative associates, namely Viket Galimidi, Sumru Şatır, İnci Ceydeli and Tuğcan Başaran did everything in their power to take the bureaucratic load off of us.  These people are the backbone of our faculty and it is thanks to them that everything runs smoothly.  Outside the university, some things were easy but others were impossibly difficult.  For example, we secured a sponsorship from İDO, the City Ferry Lines to be exact.  They gave us two ferries and parts of the ISEA conference were held on board those ferries for two days, and we paid nothing for it! 

They wouldn’t let you do this in many places of the world.  Thanks to their generosity, this was one of the highlights of the event.  We had disposal of the City Art Gallery and we did some of our public performances in the Taksim Square, which was also a great aspect of the event.  But some museum directors and public authorities weren’t helpful.  For instance, we couldn’t work with the Galata Mevlevihane Museum because the director was interested at first, but then they kind of let it fall.  We were inviting artists from Australia, America and the Far East, and they had to know where the event would be held.  They would set up their works according to the exhibition area plan, and we would set up the venue for them.  That is why we decided that we couldn’t work with venues that would have us wait until the last moment.

Did you run into anything interesting during these efforts?
Yes, a museum director told us that things worked differently in Turkey, that conspiracies were always at work.  He implied that some things, particularly very new and unconventional things couldn’t be done here.  But I think just the opposite: we were very clear about what we wanted, we talked to people in all our openness and succeeded in getting what we wanted.  And I told that museum director that it was because of people like him that young people couldn’t take the initiative, because they know they would be stopped.

You ran into all kinds of people, naturally.  You are always a smiling person but is there something specific that brings a smile to your face when you think back to those days?
During the preparations, Özden and I would leave campus on the earliest bus; we would have to get up at five to catch the bus at six, and come back to the campus on the last bus, at 11 in the evening.  We worked in the city all day long and this went on for the entire week; we left on the earliest bus and returned on the latest.  We needed a permit from the City to use Taksim Square for performances and other events.  So we went to the Constabulary in Topkapı all the way from Tuzla for several weeks.  Özden and I would have to be there very early in the morning because the Constabulary had appointment hours and if you missed them there would be throngs of people waiting.  Istanbul is a huge city and when everyone has something to do at the Constabulary, it’s simply impossible to walk through the date.  First time we were there, we noticed there was a canteen and a group of people –workers, constables– were having breakfast.  We thought let’s get something to eat, and they gave us these huge sandwiches, full loaves of bread, for only like two or three lira.  It was a lively and uplifting environment, so we made a point of having breakfast there every time we went.  The chief constable or whoever it was that would sign the permit didn’t understand what we wanted to do.  Özden explained it in Turkish but he didn’t appear to be listening.  He was only convinced when he saw our permit to use the City’s own Cumhuriyet Art Gallery in Taksim Square.  He later admitted that he wasn’t really interested in us until he saw that permit.  Then we somehow found out that he liked table tennis.  We were planning to bring in a couple of levitating robots that threw a ball at each other and played tennis from a university in Switzerland.  We talked to him about this; he loved the idea and signed the permit.

So the chief constable’s love of tennis made your life easier.
In fact, when we told him that this was an art, science and technology event, he said he always wanted to be a scientist.  He said he had awards from TÜBİTAK.  But during all the time Özden and I were there, waiting, no one understood what we were there for; they were looking at us, wondering how come we had ended up there.  We appeared very different to them and got a lot of attention.

You had a very small team to take care of such a large event.  Except the four administrative associates at the faculty, there were only four of you in the field.  How is it with other ISEA events?
The preceding event, ISEA2010, had been held in the Ruhr region, which was the European Capital of Culture at the time, and they had a team of 60 people.  In our case, 1400 speakers and listeners took part in the event.  We had a very small team to take care of an international organization of 1400 people from all around the world.  We were even joking among ourselves, saying a Turk and an Italian did the job of 60 Germans.

To be continued…

Sabancı University MBA Club begins the Entrepreneurship Seminars series to propagate the nationwide expansion of the entrepreneurial vision.  Held in the name of Sakıp Sabancı, one of Turkey’s leading entrepreneurs, the series will kick off in Adana on April 11, 2013 in partnership with the Çukurova University Synergy Club.

Ranking first on the Turkish Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology’s “University Entrepreneurship and Innovation Index,” Sabancı University’s MBA Club will hold the Sabancı Entrepreneurship Summit I in Adana, at the Çukurova University Medical School “Hippocrates” Hall on Thursday, April 11, 2013.

Supported by the Sabancı Foundation, the summit aims to foster the nationwide adoption of entrepreneurship and encourage young people to look for opportunities.  The summit will feature the youngest entrepreneurs in Turkey who will share their success stories and leading sponsors of entrepreneurs who will explain the funding schemes available to entrepreneurs.  Attendees will also have the opportunity to exchange information with entrepreneurs in person.

Held in partnership with the Çukurova University Synergy Club, this event will feature Sabancı University Faculty Member Dr. Selim Balcısoy on “The Roadmap of the Entrepreneur”, Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) Secretary-General Mete Çakmakçı on “The DNA of Entrepreneurship”, Galata Business Angels Founding Partner Serhat Görgün on “Entrepreneurship from the Investor Perspective” and Yemeksepeti.com Founder Melih Ödemiş on “The Story of Internet Entrepreneurship in Turkey since 2000: Yemeksepeti.com” Lectures will be followed by questions from the floor.  The event will be open to everyone and have free admission.  Attendees will be issued certificates at the end of the summit.
All interested parties are welcome to the “Sabancı Entrepreneurship Summit I.”

Program:
Date:    Thursday, April 11, 2013
Place:    Çukurova University Medical School, “Hippocrates” Conference Hall
Time:    12.30-12.40 Opening Speech (President of the SU MBA Club)
12.40-13.20 Selim Balcısoy, Sabancı University Faculty Member
13.20-13.30 Break
13.30-14.10 Mete Çakmakçı, TTGV Secretary-General
14.10-14.20 Break
14.20-15.00 Serhat Görgün, Galata Business Angels Founding Partner
15.00-15.10 Break
15.10-15.50 Melih Ödemiş, yemeksepeti.com Founder
15.50-16.00 Break
16.00-17.00 Question-Answer Session
17.00        Draws and presentation of prizes

Kelly Todd Brewer: “I’m not a special teacher; I just do what I saw the teachers in my family do.  I remember what my aunt, grandfather and grandmother did when I was growing up, and go along the same lines.  Most importantly, I grew up in an environment with great teacher storytellers. Comical teachers we might say.  I learn a lot from my students; they are the ones who teach me most about Turkey, its people and its culture.”

I know you used to play the saz 6-7 years ago, but now you don’t; I’ve heard that you play the guitar and have a reggae band.
Yes, I joined a band.

So you give concerts too?
Yes, we performed at Mask and Nayah, and then three times in reggae festivals.  The first was Adrasan, Antalya; the Unite in Paradise Reggae Festival.  Our last gig was at Babylon; it was my first time playing there.

That’s great.  Speaking about your band, does it have a name?
Yes, “Come Again”.

Come Again as in tell me again?
No, it’s kind of a technical term.  You begin the song, and then say “come again” and restart.  It’s an old reggae trick to get the audience involved in the song.

Who else is in the band, anyone we know?
I didn’t know these people beforehand, I was part of some other group 4 years ago, doing vocals and playing the guitar.

Sounds like you have a lot of experience in music.
Once we played at the same venue with Come Again, and when my old band dissolved shortly after that performance due to some difficulties, Come Again members asked whether I would sing in their band.  That’s when I joined.

 
You’ve been in Turkey and at Sabancı University for 10 years.  Can you talk about the lectures you give this semester?
This semester I give HUM 241 Major Works in Short Fiction and HUM 211 Major Works of Literature – The Fantastic.  The former deals mostly with Southern United States and Latin America.  The latter is on utopia/dystopia and European and Latin American politics.  In both courses, we discuss some of the key concepts in social sciences and literature, and investigate how these translate to the Turkish case.  Because of this, I think I learn more from my students than they learn from me.  You can say I take a course in “Anatolian Studies” from them.

I asked around to know more about your relationship with your students.  You seem to have warm and open relations and are in dialog with them all the time.  I see you eat lunch with your students and talk to them in the cafeteria.  You are a good teacher who is loved.  This isn’t me speaking; this is what your students say about you.  Your critical approach to great works has helped them to develop their own critical thinking skills – this is student testimonial.  The way you conduct your courses has played a part in the development of critical thinking abilities.  Your students also say that you are open-minded, nonjudgmental and free of complexes, which gives them the liberty to ask anything without worrying about whether asking that specific thing would be appropriate.  You are an approachable and accessible professor for them.  They also say that the questions you ask are challenging, which is good for them.
What do they mean, “good?”

They say that because your questions challenge them to think, they can develop themselves much better.  They say you compel them to think and to question, which motivates them to learn more and develop their skills.  They love you as a teacher.  They also say you make an effort to ensure that everyone gets a chance to participate, which is something they admire.
Really?  That’s great to hear because I love them as well.  But I’m not really unique as a teacher; my whole childhood was spent among teachers; my whole family were teachers.

What do you mean by not being unique?
I’m not a special teacher; I just do what I saw the teachers in my family do.  I remember what my aunt, grandfather and grandmother did when I was growing up, and go along the same lines.  Most importantly, I grew up in an environment with great teacher storytellers. Comical teachers we might say.

You do have a lot of teachers in your family, right?  Who were teachers again?
My aunt, my cousin, my grandmother, her sister… In this environment they would correct us instantly when we made a mistake as kids; this included mistakes in English.

So because you were in a family of teachers, you were in a natural environment for learning.  Did they set you examples?
Yes; they were my influences and role models.

So I guess being a teacher runs in the family for you.
I guess so.  I like young people too.  They give me vitality and motivate my soul.  I am happy when I’m in class with them.  I learn a lot from my students; they are the ones who teach me most about Turkey, its people and its culture.

In what ways do your students assist you the most?
I can ask them anything I need to know about words, the language or idiomatic uses.  Our students are quite bright.

So can we call this a mutual learning process where roles are sometimes switched?  Are your students also teachers whom you learn from?
Sure.

So this is a mutual relationship: you are both a teacher and a learner.  Your students are your learners at times, and teachers at others.  This sounds like a good exchange and you seem to be happy about it.
Indeed I am.

I also heard that you did some research on African immigrants in Turkey.  Can you talk about that, it sounded interesting.
Deniz Yükseker and I received an Immigration Studies grant from Koç University.  We sought the answers to why these people came to Turkey, where they wanted to go in the first place, how they felt here, whether they were persecuted…  We wanted to know what they lived through when they came with or without a valid passport.  It was a survey of immigration in general.

You said you asked where they had initially intended to go.  What were the results?
A few articles were written on this.  We saw that most Africans didn’t have Turkey as a destination, but stayed here although they wanted to go to European countries.  They had issues with working and sending their children to school.

Did you travel around Turkey, Kelly?
Not much; I’ve been to only a few places.  I went to Ankara, to Fethiye for vacation, and I visited Bursa, Hatay and Izmir; that’s it.

So you like to remain where you are?
That may be the case.

Thank you for this great conversation, Kelly.

A magnificent Bollywood production at the Sabancı University Performing Arts Center

Hosting the Istanbul leg of the 15th State Theater-Sabancı International Adana Drama Festival, Sabancı University Performing Arts Center (SGM) featured the Bollywood musical “Love Has a New Address” by the Indian superstar ensemble Taj Express.

The ensemble performed one night only in Istanbul, on Monday, April 1, 2013 at the Sabancı University Performing Arts Center.

Click here for the photo gallery.

The story has elements of comedy, suspense, laughter, romance, controversy, action and a host of unforgettable characters and promises not only to bring Bollywood to the world – but guarantees to reveal the vividly engaging heart of India as well.

Sabancı University Performing Arts Center
With a capacity of 912 viewers, Sabancı University Performing Arts Center is the largest performing arts venue in the Anatolian side of Istanbul and serves not only the Sabancı University community, but a greater audience in Istanbul as well.

Inaugurated in April 2005, the Sabancı University Performing Arts Center has brought a great variety of plays, concerts and dance performances by the leading ensembles of Turkey and the world to tens of thousands of people from all ages partly due to its reasonable pricing policy.

Applications to Graduate School of Social Sciences for Fall 2013 
By Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences  |  04 April 2013

21 Şubat 2013’te gerçekleştirilen TEDxSabanciUniversity  ‘I am’ temalı organizasyonunun videoları paylaşımda.

The videos of the TEDxSabanciUniversity event  which was held at 21th February 2013 with theme ‘ I am’  are now being shared online.

We suggest them to ones who missed the event  or want to listen to these insprinig talks again. You can reach the mentioned vidoes through the link below and share your views via our social media  accounts.

TEDxSabanciUniversity Twitter (twitter.com/TEDxSabanciUni)
TEDxSabanciUniversity Facebook  (facebook.com/TEDxSabanciUniversity)
TEDxSabanciUniversity website (tedxsabanciuniversity.com)

Kelly Todd Brewer: “I didn’t speak the language when I arrived in Turkey but I never felt lonely or an outsider.  When I went to Germany, I looked for Turkish people whenever I needed to ask something.”

Kelly Todd Brewer is a professor of “Great Works of Literature” in the Foundations Development Program, and a favorite among students.  We used to be on the same bus with Kelly in his early days at the university, and we talked at length given the time we were commuting every day.  I was amazed at how fast he learned Turkish and impressed by his natural talent in picking up the language.  I was further astonished when he began to make full idiomatic use of the language within six months.  We spoke with Kelly on his childhood, his family, how he decided to come to Turkey, the friendships he made here, his students, his music, basically his life, but with a catch: the entire conversation was originally in Turkish.  

You came to Turkey in 2003, right? And it was your first time here.
Yes.

So you came to Turkey to be a professor at Sabancı University.
Yes.

Your students love you; they say you encourage them to ask questions and that you are really approachable. From what I have seen, you learned Turkish very quickly; your idiomatic use was surprising and you had almost no accent.  I think this your talent.  You also seem like a people-person.  What can you say about this?
Actually I’m not confident about speaking Turkish.  I had to learn the language because I really am a people-person; I like meeting new people and I like to talk to them in their own language.  So I started to learn the language after I came here.  I never took any courses, I was simply around people, talking to them, practicing.

This is interesting because there are people who don’t speak a word of Turkish although they’ve been here for a long time.
You know how I learned Turkish?  I learned it at the grocery store, in the restaurants, in taxis, at the street market, speaking to the shop owners in the neighborhood.  I made many friends in Reşitpaşa, where I live.  I have a lot of neighbors too and I’m always up for a chat.

Can you talk about your life in America.  Where are you from?
I’m from a small town in South Carolina.  I grew up outdoors; in the garden, in the street.  But I can’t say I grew up in a village because there really are no villages in America.  We had a very large piece of land.

Were your family farmers?
No, we just had a large plot of land with no houses other than our own on it.

I’ve never been to America but I’ve seen those huge open spaces in films, especially in the South, where you have to drive to your neighbor’s house because it is so far away.  Was that the case for you?
Exactly, so we spent most of our youth on motorcycles. We weren’t rural people but we lived a rural life. We were traveling long distances but we were in a community where everyone knew each other.

"My father was among the first troops dispatched to Vietnam.  He died there a few months after I was born."

Do you have sisters or brothers?
I have two older brothers and an older sister; I’m the youngest of four.

What did your parents do?
My father died a few months after I was born, in 1966. He had left for Vietnam when I was one month old, and died in the war. He was among the first troops dispatched to Vietnam. He had been a soldier for 15 years when he was assigned there. He had dropped out of university and joined the Army as an NCO to feed his family. 

 
So your mother brought you up alone.
She wasn’t always alone; my father had a large family and his parents were with us.  It was a loving and close family, so we didn’t suffer too much even though we were orphaned.  My childhood was okay; I was happy.

Where was the money coming from?
There were many teachers in my father’s family.  Where we lived, there was an invisible barrier between black and white people.  An African-American couldn’t pick any job he wanted.  An African-American teacher could only serve African-American students. 

*Bu kelimeyi düzgün kullanabiliyor muyum? Ben tam olarak bilmiyorum, siyah mı demem gerekiyor?
Benim için fark etmez, zenci demek istiyorsan o da olur, siyah da olur. Emin değilsen şöyle diyebilirim: Ben Türkçede zenci kelimesini daha çok seviyorum. Çünkü siyahi olunca böyle bir political correctness (siyaseten doğruculuk) oluyor, onu sevmiyorum. Bence samimi değil.

So there was racial discrimination where you lived.
We didn’t feel as much because that’s how we had known the world.

Indeed, when you are born into that environment you don’t know any other.
Yes, and we weren’t segregated as a community.  It’s just like in Istanbul where there is no segregation between rich people and poor people; they are used to each other and they live together.  This was the case during my childhood in the American South.  We did have social barriers of course.

You said black people couldn’t take up any job they wanted.
Yes. Almost everyone in my family was a teacher. When discrimination ended they continued their jobs and taught black and white students together.  We did have issues back then, although not frequently.  People said that there was rarely any conflict in the new, mixed schools but not everything went according to plan in the South all the time.  You know how it’s like.

The South is where you used to have slavery, right?
Yes.

So perhaps the conflict between the races went way back.
Yes it did, but not like in the movies.  For instance, my grandfather’s grandmother was a slave, but she was also the daughter of the slave owner.  After emancipation, the white slave owner gave part of his property to this black daughter because he loved her.  Then, because she and her children were landowners, they were independent of the racist white community and did not suffer the problems that unlanded black people did.

What university did you go to in America?
I have an undergraduate degree in political science and Spanish from the University of South Carolina and I pursued graduate studies in Spanish literature at the University of Virginia and comparative literature at Binghamton.

Were you ever a teacher in America?
I was; I taught Spanish at the University of Indiana before coming here.

What made you think of coming to Turkey?
I didn’t think of it as such; I had a Turkish girlfriend and I came with her.

So you fell in love with a Turkish woman and decided to come here.
Well, even if I had no such connection I still could have come to Turkey because I love to travel and be in different places.  Overall, I think love played 55% of the part in my coming here.

So you came to Turkey, started living in Istanbul and teaching at Sabancı University.  I would like to know more about your impressions.  How would you compare the people here with the people back in South Carolina?
Turkish cities are similar to the cities in the American South overall.

What makes you say that?
People are close to each other and enjoy being together all the time.  Upholding traditions, family ties, closeness among the people are the similarities.  It’s like everyone knows one another.  Turkey is unlike the American North, where people are detached and independent.

I understand they are more individualistic.
Yes, people are closed in the North, where families tend to be nuclear, and more outgoing in the South.  My life is a good example: I didn’t speak the language when I arrived in Turkey but I never felt lonely or an outsider.  I was alone of course, but I wasn’t lonely.

So you didn’t feel like a stranger.
I didn’t.  Not everyone can say that maybe, but I didn’t feel like a stranger.  I hadn’t felt the same way when I was living in Spain.

So you lived in Spain too?
Yes.

You feel Turkish people close to your heart but not Spaniards?
They are different in that they are not that amiable.

Do people in America ask where you are from the way we do here?
Yes, indeed.

Then how would you compare the family structure in Turkey with the family structure in the American South?
They are similar, but they have their differences too.  In the South, we do live closer together but we can make our own decisions, people don’t intervene.  We can move out on our own when we decide to do so.  It is more difficult to make and implement individual decisions in Turkey, where family relations tend to be decisive. 

I guess here parents have more say over the lives of their children, who basically need the permission of their parents to do something.
Yes, that is the difference.

Do you meet with your siblings?
Well, we went our separate ways and I’m not going back, so…

You don’t go back to America anymore?
Only rarely.  We phone and email each other, but one’s in Colorado, the other’s in New York.

They are all across the United States and you seem to have become Turkish.
You’re right; that’s how I felt when I went to Germany.

Did you say things like this is how we do it in Turkey when you were there?
I could only speak Turkish there, so that was a bit strange.

So you went to Turkey and you found it easier to talk to Turkish people like they were your countrymen.
I didn’t speak German, so I had no choice.  I looked for Turkish people whenever I needed something or had to ask for directions.

Were you always interested in music?
Yes, I have been since I was a child.  I had a trumpet that I loved playing.  When I was nine, I started taking music classes at school so I had a trumpet.  I played in the school band during middle and high school.  I won a musical scholarship to the South Carolina State University, whose band is known throughout the South, and I played the trumpet in that band.  But I stopped playing when I transferred to the University of South Carolina.

What other instruments do you play?
I play the guitar and I can sing too.

I should mention you also play the saz.
Indeed; I’m like a curious cat.

It’s nice of you to say that for yourself.
But I am; I am perhaps a bit too curious.

You learned to play the saz in Turkey, right?
Yes, but I’m not very good at it.

Well, I think we should decide for ourselves.  I think you are a bit too humble in this matter.  You can’t be a virtuoso of course, but…
I’m not even a good amateur.

Do you sing Turkish folk songs?
I probably could if I listened closely for a while.

You must have a good ear for music.
Well, a black guy singing Turkish folk songs does sound like a joke.

You said you were a vocalist; do you only sing reggae, or are you interested in blues too?
I like blues too.  I joined with economics professor Mehmet Barlo’s band here at Sabancı, we gave a few blues concerts.

When and where?
Last year; we played at the Middle East Technical University.

Really?  We never heard about it.
Yes, we did.  Mehmet Barlo is a great guitar player and he’s had his band, Kind’a Blue, going on at Sabancı for a long time.  The “Blue” stands for both the music genre and Sabancı’s blue color.

So Kind’a Blue is Mehmet Barlo’s band.
Yes, and there are students in the band too, mostly Sabancı students.  We played at the Kadıköy Shaft once.

That is great.  So you played at METU and Shaft, any others?
Nayah in Beyoğlu too.

Do you still play with Kind’a Blue?
Let’s say Kind’a Blue and I are friends.

So you’re not a full member but you play with the band every now and then.
Yes, but I love them. Mehmet Barlo is simply number one.

*"This section has been intentionally left in Turkish due to meaning loss in translation"

To be continued…

The Kadir Has Outstanding Young Investigator Award goes to Ali Koşar

The winners of the 9. Kadir Has Awards were announced.

Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences faculty member Ali Koşar received the 9. Kadir Has Outstanding Young Investigator Award.  Kadir Has Outstanding Young Investigator Award is awarded to the young scientist, who is under the age of 40 and who have proved to have the necessary qualifications for gaining high reputation in his/her field and for providing outstanding and novel contributions to science in the future at an international level.