Istanbul is one of Europe’s oldest and largest cities, and today, one of its most fashionable travel spots. Popular narratives celebrate the city’s cultural vibrancy. Artistic works refer to the potential it offers for crossing the bridge between Asia and Europe, between Islam and the West. Interestingly, the bridge metaphor is also one worn out by local politicians to express the geopolitical significance of Istanbul and Turkey.

Istanbul has acted, to use another popular metaphor, as Turkey’s gateway to Europe in a U.S. lead post-WW II period. This role has been paralleled by massive urban growth from a city of one million inhabitants in the first half of the twentieth century to one of thirteen million by the turn of the twenty-first, and a physical expansion nearly ten times in size. The desire to tame the city’s expansion and to turn Istanbul into a competitive city has justified several phases of urban renewal as well as stirring an ongoing public debate on urban form and culture.

In the 2000's, with E.U. membership on the horizon, the city is showcased once again to exhibit Turkey’s modernity. As the public debate in Europe heats up on whether Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, has a place in it or not, Istanbul is selected as one of the 2010 European Capitals of Culture. The New Europe seems ready to acknowledge Istanbul as part of its heritage, but is highly ambivalent on its future relationship with a Muslim-majority Turkey. One strong reaction to European bias in Turkey is the rise of Euro-scepticism. Turkey’s claims to European-ness via Istanbul have implications for both national self-fashioning, and urban public culture.

"Orienting Istanbul" Exhibition
24 - 28 September 2008
“Istanbul-Berkeley”
A selection of video works from the 10th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Hou Hanru, featuring works by Emre Hüner, Wong Hoy-Cheong, Map Office

“Sounds of the City”
An installation commissioned for “Orienting Istanbul” by Gökçe Kınayoğlu and Wenhua Shi

Program
25 September 2008
17:00 - 19:00: The Sound of Istanbul
“The Sound of İstanbul: 1950-2004.”
Feride Çiçekoğlu (Professor, Department of Film and Television, Bilgi University, Turkey)
20:45 - 22:30: Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005) by Fatih Akın

26 September 2008
09:00 - 10:00: Welcome and Opening Remarks
- İpek Türeli (Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley; Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, USA)
- Deniz Göktürk (Professor, Department of German, UC Berkeley, USA)
- Nezar AlSayyad (Chair, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and Professor, Department of Architecture and City & Regional Planning, UC Berkeley, USA)
10:00 - 12:30: Architectures of Exclusion 
- “Weaving and Ripping Istanbul’s Social Fabric: Migration, Space, and Power in the Urban Landscape.”
Jeremy Pine (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, USA)
- “Büyük Valide Han: A Microcosm of the Problems and Prospect of Change in the Historical District.”
Ayşegül Baykan (Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey)
Zerrin İren Boynudelik (Professor, Department of Art, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey)
Belkıs Uluoğlu (Professor, Department of Art, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
Burak Sevingen (Instructor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey)
- “Remapping Global Istanbul: The Kanyon Center at Büyükdere.”
İpek Yada Akpınar (Professor, Department of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey and Visiting Scholar at Eastern Mediterranean University, Northern Cyprus)
- “Contradiction of Scales and Actors in Regenerating Istanbul.”
Savaş Zafer Şahin (Culture and Tourism Specialist, Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkey)
- "Urban Transformation’ as State-Led Property Transfer: Slum Clearance and Urban Renewal Projects in Istanbul.”
Tuna Kuyucu (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Washington, USA)
Özlem Ünsal (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, City University, U.K.)
- “Gentrification and/or Identity Construction: The Historic and Touristic Süleymaniye Neighborhood.”
Nilay Kayaalp (Graduate Student, Department of Architecture, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey) 
Discussant: Cihan Tuğal (Professor, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley, USA)
14:00 - 15:50: Spaces of Nostalgia
- “Temporal Heterogeneity and the Status of the Present in Istanbul.”
Brian Silverstein (Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona Tucson, USA)
- “The Chronotope of Istanbul in Turkish Literature.”
Sibel Erol (Professor, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University, USA)
- “Neo-Ottoman Horizons and Public Piety in Contemporary Istanbul."
Jeremy Walton (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago, USA)
- “Consuming Nostalgia: Fortune Telling Cafés in Istanbul.”
Zeynep Korkman (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara, USA)
Discussant: Minoo Moallem (Professor, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, UC Berkeley, USA)
16:00 - 17:30: Nostalgic Modernity
“‘Don’t be afraid; These People are Modern’: Pamuk and the Fear of Modernity”
Marshall Berman (Distinguished Professor of Political Science, City College New York, USA )

27 September 2008
09:30 - 11:00: The Cinematic City
- “City Forgotten and Then Remembered Again: Early Years of Cinema in Istanbul.”
Nezih Erdoğan (Professor, Department of Film and Television, Bilgi University, Turkey)
- “Two Oriental Images of Istanbul: Robbe-Grillet’s L’Immortelle and Erksan’s Time to Love.”
Aslı Daldal (Professor, Department of Political Science, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey and Lecturer, Department of Western Languages and Literature, Bogaziçi University, Turkey)
- “The Transformation of Istanbul Images in Films.”
Deniz Bayrakdar (Professor, Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema, Kadir Has University, Turkey)
Elif Akçalı (Ph.D. Student, Department of Media Arts, University of London, U.K.)
Discussant: Deniz Göktürk (Professor, Department of German, UC Berkeley, USA)
12:30 - 14:00: Art in The City
- “The Istanbul Art Scene: Between Historical Reassessment and the Contemporary.”
Jale Erzen (Professor, Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Turkey)
- “The 10th Istanbul Biennial and the City.”
Hou Hanru (Curator, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and Chair of the Exhibitions and Museum Studies program, San Francisco Art Institute, USA)
Discussant: Richard Rinehart (Digital Media Director & Adjunct Curator at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley, USA)
14:30 - 16:30: Cultures of Spectacle
- “Istanbul 2010: New Dimensions for a Decentralized and Opportunistic Capital for Europe."
Carola Hein (Professor, Growth and Structure of Cities Program, Bryn Mawr College, USA)
- “Spectacularizing the Arts, (Re)Vitalizing the City: The Politics of Large-scale Urban Arts Events.”
Banu Karaca (Ph.D. Candidate, Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA)
- “Galatasaray’s 2000 UEFA Cup Win: Local and National Pride, International Recognition."
Armando Vargas (Professor, Arabic and Comparative Literature, Williams College, USA)
- “Curating ‘Modern’ at Istanbul Modern.”
Şebnem Yücel Young (Professor, Department of Architecture, Izmir Institute of Technology, Turkey) 
Discussant: Greig Crysler (Professor, Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley, USA)

16:30  -17:30: Future(s) of The City 
Open Discussion 
Levent Soysal (Professor, Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema, Kadir Has University, Turkey)

Invited Speakers
- Marshall Berman
- Feride Çiçekoğlu
- Jale Erzen
- Hou Hanru

Organizers
- Deniz Göktürk (Department of German, University of California Berkeley)
- İpek Türeli (Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley)
- Levent Soysal (Department of Radio, Television, and Cinema, Kadir Has University)

Conference Advisor: Nezar AlSayyad

Co-Sponsors
- Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- Townsend Center for Humanities, University of California, Berkeley
- Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley
- Department of German, University of California, Berkeley
- Department of Architecture, University of California, Berkeley