Civil Society, Politics, and Religion in Turkey
Mary Ellen Weir
Belmont Abbey College
I fondly recall my IFDS in Turkey this summer, June 19-30. And, my appreciation to CIEE and the Ping Fellowship I received to take the trip grows as I realize, in hindsight, how enriching the experience was for me. I am bringing this experience to my Belmont Abbey College campus in both formal and informal ways.
In my application for the Ping Fellowship, I outlined the activities I wished to bring to campus upon my return. First and foremost is to give a presentation to faculty on my IFDS. I was hoping to have this presentation during the Fall semester, and began working on the presentation after my return from Turkey. The presentation is complete, but various scheduling problems prevented me from offering the presentation in the Fall semester, as I would have liked. However, I am scheduled to present in the Spring Semester, February 6, 2008, to be exact. I will give the presentation at the faculty’s monthly “Second Wednesday “ lecture series.
I am actively encouraging my faculty colleagues, and several administrators, to investigate IFDS. When I received CIEE’s website announcement of IFDS for Summer, 2008, I sent an email to all faculty and administrators, with a short note telling them of the value of my experiences. Two faculty members (we have a total of 55 full-time faculty) have approached me for further information; one is interested in the Jordan trip, another in the India “business” oriented trip. I also informally reported the success of my trip to the college’s president, who is very enthusiastic about IFDS, and has promised to attend my presentation in February. I have discussed my IFDS experience with our Academic Dean, who, like the president, is very supportive and has pledged to encourage faculty participation in IFDS, as a way to support the increasing “internationalization” on our campus.
In my classes, I frequently mention some of my discoveries from my trip. Just yesterday in my Great Books 320 course, I mentioned the head-scarf issue in Turkey, and our meeting with a Turkish feminist group about this issue. (We are reading and discussing Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and the impact of feminism worldwide). One of my anticipated activities on my Ping Fellowship application was to include Turkish literature in my World Literature course, which I had been listed to teach in the Fall semester. However, the inevitable pre-semester course schedule-shifting resulted in my not teaching World Lit. this semester. I will probably rotate to teaching it in the Fall, 2008, which is actually better, so that I can research Turkish literature over the summer.
I informally work with Belmont Abbey’s Director of Study Abroad, since I have great interest in our college’s expanding study abroad program. I have shared my trip with him, and we continue to discuss various international venues for our students. We have discussed furthering our Study Abroad opportunities to Turkey, but no action has been taken at this point.
I am very grateful to CIEE and the Ping Fellowship. CIEE’s International Faculty Development Seminars are of very high quality, expertly conducted, intellectually enriching, and just plain fun. This is what I have been telling my colleagues at Belmont Abbey College. Our campus continues to expand its thinking about internationality and continues to grow in its Study Abroad possibilities for both students and faculty. I think my experience with CIEE has helped with this growth, and again, I am thankful that I was able to have my experience in Turkey with the help of the Ping Fellowship. Hopefully, in the future, other Belmont Abbey faculty members will have experiences such as mine.