INTERIM ABROAD IN INSTANBUL—
The Interim Christian-Muslim Relations and the Mega City spent the first half of the month at Wofford and the second half in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dr. Philip Dorroll and 20 students of different disciplines used their time on campus in daily discussion, reading and watching the news media, and analyzing the relationship between Christians and Muslims, a topic that concerns almost every major political power.
Dorroll began the course with a historical record of how Muslims and Christians have viewed one another since they first met in the 7th century CE, focusing on the perception each community has of the other. The class discussion then moved through Istanbul as a contemporary and historic case study of the Christian Muslim relationship. Students engaged in a comprehensive study of the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires in Istanbul, moving up to modern day politics of Turkey, including Kemalism and the aggressive secularism of Turkey.
The class had a briefing on the Turkish language, and then was off to Turkey to study the topic on the ground in Istanbul.
According to senior religion major Erin Simmonds, the group stayed in Istanbul for 10 days.
“We could have seen more of Turkey, but instead we had more substantial understandings of one city.”
Dorroll says the reason for the extended stay in a single city is that he wanted “Istanbul to speak for itself and to have us be exposed to as many voices as we could. It was designed as a combination of all the places and experiences
I have had in Istanbul myself, and it was my attempt at the most comprehensive experience of the city life that I could come up with. It was more than tourism. We met with local communities and engaged in culturally significant experiences of Turkish people.”
For sophomore Julie Pugh, studying in Istanbul was her first Interim abroad.
“It was interesting to learn hands on,” says Pugh, “actually being in the city, talking to locals who have experienced what we’re talking about from class. It is important while forming our own thoughts on the issues.”
Simmonds has studied Islam and religion in Turkey before the experience. She wrote her thesis on the Hagia Sohpia.
“The Interim helped me have a clearer, more thorough understanding of religiosity in Turkey. Religion is a concept that is easy to talk about but difficult to understand. The best way to really figure it out is to experience it.”
Elizabeth Gugliotti had just returned from her semester abroad in Bonaire before the Interim in Turkey. She says having been abroad previously “amplified how Istanbul is unlike anywhere else—it is unique in its culture, relations and really everything. There is so much history and it is culturally rich in time and space.”
Senior Sarah Grace Keaveny, who will be attending medical school at MUSC next fall says, “This class was an opportunity to focus on things outside of my career interests. It really rounded my liberal arts experience at Wofford. It was interesting to be able to see a dominantly Muslim society and to understand first hand that their lives are just like Protestant Christians. Contrary to popular belief, the religion does not dictate every part of their lives.”
“It seems obvious, but it is a powerful experience to see someone in a different environment, who is just like you,” says Dorroll. “It is a primary reason why I chose public transportation as the mode of getting around in our Interim. You don’t see the city through a glass—you would be missing the human component if you did.”
