McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies

McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies
Formation 1989
Type Academic center
Location
Coordinates 36°32′1.4″N 31°59′45″E / 36.533722°N 31.99583°E / 36.533722; 31.99583Coordinates: 36°32′1.4″N 31°59′45″E / 36.533722°N 31.99583°E / 36.533722; 31.99583
Director
 Dr. Kay Ebel
Parent organization
 Georgetown University
Affiliations Koç University
Website mcgheecenter.georgetown.edu

The McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies is an overseas academic center operated by Georgetown University in Alanya, Turkey. The McGhee Center was founded in 1989 after Ambassador George Crews McGhee, former United States Ambassador to Turkey and West Germany, donated his Mediterranean villa to Georgetown University to create a center for the study of the history and culture of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean. The McGhee Center is academically affiliated in Turkey with Koç University and presently offers three types of programming: semester abroad, the Summer Institute in Intensive Turkish Language, and study tours and short programs.

The McGhee Villa and Student Residence

The Villa was built in the 1830s.

The principle facility of the McGhee Center is the McGhee Villa, an Ottoman-era mansion located in the historic district of Alanya, within the old walled city overlooking the harbor. The villa was built in the early nineteenth century by a local Orthodox Christian merchant who specialized in the export of timber to Egypt. After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Alanya’s trade routes were severed and its Christian community departed for Greece. The villa, like many of Alanya’s grand old Ottoman homes, fell into disrepair and was gradually abandoned as more and more families came to prefer the comfort and convenience of modern apartment buildings. The villa was discovered by George McGhee and his wife Cecilia on a visit to Alanya during his tenure as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey in the 1950s. McGhee purchased the property in 1968 and renovated it for his family’s use. In 1989 he donated the villa to Georgetown University with the intention that it should endure as a center of learning and scholarship.[1]

Students and guests at the McGhee Center attend classes, meetings, special events, and take meals at the villa. The villa also houses a library, study areas, kitchen, faculty and staff offices, and space for visiting lecturers. The property includes a terraced garden that rises behind the villa, culminating in a gazebo with spectacular views of the sea and the city. The gardens are planted with tangerine, olive, lemon, pomegranate, bougainvillea, cypress, oleander, loquat, oregano, and cactus.[2]

Students at the McGhee Center are lodged in a student residence, a modern apartment building located halfway between the villa and downtown Alanya – a fifteen-minute walk to each. Student apartments are furnished, including fully equipped kitchens, bed and bath linens, wireless internet access, and a study area with printing facilities.[3]

Academic programs

Students present research at Side, Turkey

Semester Abroad Program

The semester abroad program is the oldest and most established program at the McGhee Center. From 1990-2008 it was offered as a spring semester program, but beginning in Fall 2008 it will be offered in the fall semester instead.

The semester begins with a two-week orientation program in Istanbul and Ankara, with excursions to Bursa and Edirne. Following orientation, classes begin in Alanya. Weekly excursions from Alanya introduce students to the cities and monuments of southern Turkey, complementing classroom study with field experience. Destinations include Antalya, Konya, Aspendos, Perge, Side, Anamur, and Antioch. A ten-day mid-semester study tour to Syria offers another perspective on the Eastern Mediterranean and a rare opportunity to visit early Christian, Islamic, and Crusader monuments as well as the modern Arab cities of Damascus and Aleppo. In years when political conditions do not permit the Syria excursion to run, the group travels instead in central and eastern Turkey.

The language of instruction at the McGhee Center is English. The curriculum is interdisciplinary. Students in the program typically represent a wide range of faculties and majors. Courses of study on offer vary from year to year according to the specialization of visiting faculty. Course offerings in recent years have included:

Some courses offer the option to earn additional academic credit by engaging in service learning activities with local educational and environmental organizations in Alanya.

The semester abroad program is open to undergraduate university students. Applications for the fall semester abroad are normally due during the preceding February and are made to Georgetown University's Office of International Programs. Competitive scholarships for participants in the semester abroad are provided with support from the Institute of Turkish Studies and the Turkish Cultural Foundation.

Summer Language Program

During the summer the McGhee Center hosts the Summer Institute in Intensive Beginning Turkish Language. The summer institute runs for eight weeks between mid-June and mid-August. Students receive 20 hours per week of Turkish language instruction and participate in cultural programming including field trips, lecture and film series, and Turkish conversation practice sessions.

The Summer Institute in Intensive Turkish is part of the Critical Languages Scholarship Program operated by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) with funds provided by the U.S. Department of State. This program is designed to promote the study of less commonly studied languages that are deemed crucial to diplomacy, commerce, and international security. The program is open to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as some early career professionals. Only U.S. citizens are eligible. Application is made directly to the Critical Languages Scholarship Program. Successful applicants receive full scholarships including tuition, travel and stipend.

Other Programs

Other programs and opportunities at the McGhee Center include alumni tours and Wworkshops, seminars, or retreats organized within Georgetown University and Koç University, or hosting of events organized in cooperation with external organizations. The villa also hosts a program on the Roman Empire.,[4] a Georgetown University summer program directed by Dr. Josiah Osgood and Dr. Charles McNelis of the Department of Classics. This program ran for two weeks in late May and early June 2008, visiting Roman historical and archaeological sites in Istanbul and the Aegean and Mediterranean regions of Turkey. The second week of the program was spent in residence at the McGhee Center.

Faculty

The McGhee Center is on a peninsula above the Mediterranean Sea.

Permanent Faculty

Dr. Scott N. Redford is the Faculty Director and founding architect of the semester abroad program. He is Associate Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and Director of the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations at Koç University in Istanbul. Dr. Redford specializes in the history of art, architecture, landscape, and archaeology of the Seljuk dynasty and late medieval Anatolia. His publications include Landscape and the State in Medieval Anatolia[5] and The Archaeology of the Frontier in the Medieval Near East[6] At the McGhee Center Professor Redford teaches Introduction to Architectural History and History of the Crusades.

Dr. Kathryn A. Ebel is Academic and Administrative Director of the McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Georgetown University. She is the on-site administrator for all programs at the McGhee Center and is responsible for program development and coordination. A specialist in the cultural and historical geography of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, her forthcoming book is titled City Views, Imperial Visions: Cartography and the Visual Culture of Urban Space in the Ottoman Empire 1453-1603.[7] At the McGhee Center she teaches Cultural Geography of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Visiting Faculty

Visiting faculty at the McGhee Center in recent years have included:

Turkish Language Instructors

References

  1. ↑ McGhee, George; Cecilia McGhee (1992). Life in Alanya. Benson, Vermont: Chalidze Publications. ISBN 1-56541-217-6.
  2. ↑ "Living History". Blue & Gray. Spring 2006. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  3. ↑ Office of International Programs, Georgetown University
  4. ↑ The Roman Empire in Turkey
  5. ↑ Redford, Scott; Timothy Beach; Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach (200). Landscape and the State in Medieval Anatolia: Seljuk Gardens and Pavilions of Alanya, Turkey. Oxford: Archaeopress. ISBN 1-84171-095-4.
  6. ↑ Redford, Scott; Gil J. Stein; Naomi F. Miller; Denis C. Hodges (1998). The Archaeology of the Frontier in the Medieval Near East: Excavations at Gritille. Philadelphia: University Museum Publications, University of Pennsylvania. ISBN 0-924171-65-0.
  7. ↑ Ebel, Kathryn A. (Forthcoming). City Views, Imperial Visions: Cartography and the Visual Culture of Urban Space in the Ottoman Empire 1453-1603. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Check date values in: |date= (help)
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