CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Gender, Ethnicity, Missionaries, and the "Other": Global Cities, Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Organiser: Hande A. Birkalan

Birkalan, Hande A. (Yeditepe University, Turkey) A PROMENADE ON THE ISTIKLAL CADDESI: HYBRIDITY, FAÇADE, AND THE "OTHER"
This paper is a close reading of Istanbul's only "living" street through examining social organizations, symbolic representations; and collective and individual strategies that produce a contact zone. Primarily, it evaluates how codes of representation and various ideologies are produced, negotiated, and consumed on a strip of road that is the heartbeat of the 15-million metropolis. With its bookstores, cafes, theaters, cinemas, mosques, churches, art galleries, bars, consulates, and cultural centers, Istiklal Caddesi is a perfect example of what Mikhail Bahktin calls a carnivalesque. Loyal visitors are students, intellectuals, academics, and many more-especially if one is to gaze to a side street-homeless people, beggars, and the Gypsies. Any passer by is automatically invited to become an active participant in this contact zone of constant searching and finding, not just of imagining the "other." Istiklal Caddesi is a façade, a materialization of the carnivalesque, or better yet, a site of identification and interaction for the self.

Capan, Leyla (Yeditepe University, Turkey) AN EVALUATION OF THE MISSIONARY HOSPITALS IN ISTANBUL
One of the contributions of different cultures in Istanbul, in late 19th century, was their architecture. Analyzing and discussing many different dimensions of an architectural study on missionary hospital buildings in Istanbul will bring forth the scope of this multi-cultural contribution. A comparative analysis brings about the many different factors which have their own contribution to both the building itself and the city. These factors can be summarized as the nationality, native country, economic conditions, religion, relations with the Ottoman Empire, the geography of the city etc. The fact that most of these hospitals still function and are known by their original names shows that they have a continuous contribution to the city. This is one of the reasons why the existence of this specific type of building is worth discussing with all its varying aspects.

Petzen, Jennifer (Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Germany and University of Washington at Seattle, USA) TURKISH MUSIC IN BERLIN
This paper will describe several soundscapes in which music that is produced, marketed and consumed by Turkish migrants and their descendents in Berlin. I argue that migrants and others manipulate and use Turkish soundscapes to order and give meaning to their complex experiences in Berlin, experiences which cannot be pinned down to a any specific identity or nationality. In this paper, I will describe three contexts of Turkish music in Berlin: the role of music in the political and religious life of Alevis; the use of traditional asik music of the nationalist party to drum up political support; and the successful introduction of Turkish "Oriental" drag into both the queer scene and Turkish spaces.