July – early August, 2008 (tentative)

Deadline: January 18, 2008

This five week curriculum development program in Turkey provides teachers a unique look at a country with an overwhelmingly Muslim population, a functioning democratic system, an open-market economy and strong industrialization, as well as a history reaching back nearly 10,000 years and manifest in a stunning number of monuments.

This project takes advantage of the unique range of opportunities on several levels. It will introduce the study group to the issues facing Turkey as a modern country in the Middle East as they bear upon the formation of a modern Turkish identity. The historical depth in Turkey will be addressed as a separate component first and later in asking how this complex and multi-layered history, ever present in a variety of ways, is conceptualized in the ongoing search for a national and modern identity.

Organized by the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS) at the University of Michigan . This project is contingent on funding through the US Department of Education as a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad grant (pending).