Hagia Sophia: Perspectives from Cultural Heritage (Recorded #Webinar)

Posted by: bluesyemre | October 1, 2020

Hagia Sophia: Perspectives from Cultural Heritage (Recorded #Webinar)

Held as a webinar on September 19th, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. EDT., this panel was organized to bring together scholars and analysts to comment on the recent conversion of the Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque from the perspective of architectural history in geopolitical context.

What is the building’s significance for Byzantine, early and late Ottoman, Republican and contemporary Turkish architecture? How will the Hagia Sophia’s conversion into a mosque in 2020 impact its use, global and local public meaning, place in the city and nearby monuments, physical attributes, Byzantine mosaics, Christian and Muslim symbols, marble floor, and acoustics, among other things? What effects did the building’s recent conversion make in different areas of historical studies? Are there comparable examples elsewhere in the world?

Speakers make 8-minute presentations in the rough chronological order of their historical field of expertise and comment on the contemporary decision from the perspectives of their own scholarly work and study area. After a discussion where speakers responded to each other, the panel concluded with a Q and A session.

Speakers are listed in the order they present in the webinar:

This event was organized by the Institute for European Studies (IES), a program of the Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University, as part of the IES Migration Series for its AY 2020-21 theme Repair and Reparations.

Funding was provided by the Central New York Humanities Corridor, as part of the multi-year event series “New Approaches to Scholarship and Pedagogy of Ottoman and Turkish Architecture” organized by Esra Akcan (Cornell University) and Peter Christensen (University of Rochester).