The Levantine Heritage Foundation presents The Third International Conference on Levantines in Istanbul.
Call for papers deadline: 15 September, 2018
The Levantines were a small minority concentrated in the port cities of the Ottoman Empire, but their influence on commerce, ideas and industrialisation was considerable. The Ottoman State made a clear distinction between its citizens and foreigners as laws applicable to both groups were incompatible. As the native born foreign population that we term Levantines grew both in size and influence this created great tensions in the system, particularly when it came to legal disputes, ‘mixed’ marriages and property ownership. We would like to explore how this longstanding issue was addressed from both sides and how it was at times abused by foreign governments or Levantines, and how the successor states and the Turkish republic adjusted to the status of Levantines and its legacy today. We are happy to accept proposals across a wide chronological, geographic and thematic spectrum as long as the broad focus revolves around the title.
We invite proposals for panels as well as individual presentations. Proposals should include title and abstracts (limited to 500 words) and a 1-paragraph biographical note of the author(s) including the name(s) of the presenter(s), institutional affiliations where applicable, mailing address, telephone number and email address. Presentation duration is 20 minutes. The language of presentations will be English or Turkish.