Müge Göçek and Ron Suny: Win MESA's Academic Freedom Prize
The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) awarded its 2005 academic freedom prize to the Workshop for Armenian-Turkish Scholarship for its pioneering and successful efforts to address controversial issues raised by the destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during World War One.
MESA made the award on Sunday evening, November 20, at an awards ceremony during its 40th annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C. The group cited the work of Professors Fatma Muge Gocek, Ronald Suny, and other workshop members
“The enterprise of the Workshop of Armenian-Turkish Scholarship is an elegant example of academic freedom in operation,” said MESA president Ali Banuazizi, professor of sociology at Boston University, “These scholars reached out to one another, using the tools of history and the language of collegial discourse, to begin a process of reconciliation that will have positive repercussions within society and among political elites.”
Five years ago, in 2000, the members of the workshop initiated a series of conferences involving Armenian, Armenian-American, Turkish, and Turkish-American historians and other academics who had separately addressed issues raised by the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War One. In September 2005, after some Turkish political leaders had sabotaged earlier efforts, Istanbul’s Bilgi University hosted workshop members at a conference on these issues, also organized by Bogazici and Sabanci universities, despite continued opposition from some Turkish political leaders.
MESA also gave an academic freedom award this year to Akbar Ganji, the courageous Iranian writer who remains in prison for his courageous critical writing about abusive policies and practices of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
MESA made the award on Sunday evening, November 20, at an awards ceremony during its 40th annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C. The group cited the work of Professors Fatma Muge Gocek, Ronald Suny, and other workshop members
“The enterprise of the Workshop of Armenian-Turkish Scholarship is an elegant example of academic freedom in operation,” said MESA president Ali Banuazizi, professor of sociology at Boston University, “These scholars reached out to one another, using the tools of history and the language of collegial discourse, to begin a process of reconciliation that will have positive repercussions within society and among political elites.”
Five years ago, in 2000, the members of the workshop initiated a series of conferences involving Armenian, Armenian-American, Turkish, and Turkish-American historians and other academics who had separately addressed issues raised by the massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War One. In September 2005, after some Turkish political leaders had sabotaged earlier efforts, Istanbul’s Bilgi University hosted workshop members at a conference on these issues, also organized by Bogazici and Sabanci universities, despite continued opposition from some Turkish political leaders.
MESA also gave an academic freedom award this year to Akbar Ganji, the courageous Iranian writer who remains in prison for his courageous critical writing about abusive policies and practices of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.