Relations between East and West constitute the most important fault lines of the post-Cold War era. Samuel Huntington examined these fault lines in his Clash of Civilizations thesis. After the 9/11 attacks, the relations between East and West gained a new dimension with the US-led global war on terror. In the face of the dominant, liberal, capitalist, enlightened and racially white mass represented by the West, there is the perception of culture allegedly produced by Eastern societies positioned as the other.
The acceptance that knowledge is produced by Westerners as the sole source based on observation leads to the formation of an unfair hierarchical relationship. In this framework, on the one hand, the Westerner who perceives Eastern societies as matter to be examined, and on the other hand, the concept of an Easterner who needs to be examined, corrected, taught, educated and democratized. As a result, the concept of Eastern culture in general, and Islamic culture and the society it produces in a narrower sense, as Edward Said put it, was formed, which was observed, studied, analyzed, interpreted, judged and judged by the West.
Post-Colonial theory represents a critical perspective that responds to the Western-based orientalist view of knowledge production, distribution and dissemination. PAMER examines both Orientalist knowledge production and Post-Colonial knowledge as a response to it.
OBJECTIVES:
Through postcolonial studies, it provides a range of opportunities for study and research in a wide range of social sciences and sciences, from international relations to anthropology, from sociology to religious and linguistic studies, and from medicine and health sciences to various natural and engineering sciences. It contributes to the formation of knowledge systems that will offer an alternative to the production of "acceptable" knowledge originating from "one and only the West" by evaluating the community of theories, including different systems of thought such as classical international relations theories, Orientalism, Feminism, Marxism and Modernization theories, from a postcolonial perspective.
Some sample questions that are of interest to postcolonial theory can be listed as follows:
- Is there a difference in the acid content between Coca Cola sold in the US and Coca Cola sold in Turkey? Do sugar ratios also differ? If so, how does postcolonial theory explain this?
- What factors played a role in the formation of the borders of nation-states structured in the postcolonial period?
- Why was North Africa separated from Africa and included in the Middle East in the production and dissemination of Western knowledge?
- Are some medicines produced in the US being tested in developing countries during the trial phase?
- Why are some medicines that are restricted in Western countries available without prescription in developing countries?
- What environmental factors, excluding biological factors such as ethnicity, race, gender, etc., can be taken into account to explain the difference in the upper and lower limits of normal cholesterol levels between developed and developing/underdeveloped countries?
AREAS OF ACTIVITY:
The activities of the Center are activated through two channels: academic and social.
1 Academic Activities: To conduct research in theoretical and applied fields in order to prepare an opportunity for the production of knowledge related to postcolonial theory in different disciplines, and to share the results of research through publications and conferences/seminars.
a. Periodic Seminars/Conferences: To support informative programs given by academia and non-academia working on post-colonial theory.
b. Workshops/Discussions: To organize practical workshops that bring together students and faculty members.
c. Knowledge Base: To enable the collection of works on postcolonial theory in a virtual environment.
d. Communication Network: To ensure the creation of a communication network that includes individuals/institutions/groups working on postcolonial theory.
2. Social Activities: One of the features that distinguishes these activities from the work in the academic field is that they are open to the wider society outside the academic world.
a. Training programs are organized to raise awareness of different layers of society by making use of the contributions of non-governmental organizations, think tanks and similar organizations.
b. Using postcolonial criticism to read world, regional and local politics and to make forward-looking projections.
c. To support Turkey's democratization process and contribute to sustainable development efforts.
d. To contribute to the correct development of the concept of "New Turkey".
e. To produce information for the creation of a human-oriented and human-oriented management system.
f. To produce projections within the framework of the perspective of transition from state-centered management to citizen-centered management.