Browsing by Author "Hamadeh, Shirine"

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    Global Locality, National Modernity: Negotiating Urban Transformation in Early Republican Istanbul (1923-1949)
    (2018-08-08) Acikgoz, Umit Firat; Hamadeh, Shirine; López-Durán, Fabiola
    By the time the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923, Istanbul had become a marginalized city. A series of wars and devastating fires during the final years of the Ottoman Empire took a massive toll on the city’s economy and physical landscape, which posed the necessity of a comprehensive urban renewal. This dissertation traces the circulation of ideas, theories, and proposals about the modernization of Istanbul’s built environment during the early republican period (1923-1949). Focusing on urban planning, architecture, and historical preservation, it offers an urban history of Istanbul at this critical, post-imperial juncture that coincided with the rise of nationalism and global modernism. This dissertation departs from the standard historiography that overemphasizes the agency of the nation-building program and its top-down state engineering in the social and spatial reconfiguration of Turkey. Instead, I argue that an entangled web of global, national, and local dynamics fueled the urban transformation of early republican Istanbul. Drawing on archival material and contemporary publications, I specifically focus on the crucial but hitherto neglected role of local agents in shaping the politics and practices of urbanism. By examining particular moments of urban intervention (such as the opening of boulevards, the redesigning of public squares, and the demolition of historical monuments) and the public debates that surrounded them, this dissertation demonstrates how Istanbul-based institutions and individuals transformed their city by navigating through the theories of modernism, the nationalist ideology, and their own diverse visions of modernity and urban modernization.
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    Migrant Constructions and Mahjar Monuments: Transnational Art and Architecture in Modern Argentina, 1910-1955
    (2018-04-16) Wolf, Caroline "Olivia" Maria; López-Durán, Fabiola M.; Hamadeh, Shirine
    This dissertation examines the art and architectural patronage of the Arabic-speaking diaspora (mahjar) in Latin America’s southern cone. It focuses on public memorials and spaces of collective strength and wealth (mutual aid associations, banks, and clubs), faith (places of worship) and health (hospitals) sponsored by these diverse immigrants in Argentina from the early to mid-twentieth century via archival records, site documentation, and interviews. By considering key monuments sponsored by this diaspora through the lens of modernism, I demonstrate how public sculpture and architecture helped reconstruct shifting transnational identities while activating multiple mobilities in a nation where their presence was first contested. Bridging the gap between migration studies and the humanities, I engage interdisciplinary methodologies to highlight the agency of immigrant artists, architects, and patrons in the shaping of transnational identities and modern movements in the southern cone. Mobility and temporality are two key concepts used to frame mahjar monuments (a term which describes the art and architecture crafted by the Arabic-speaking diaspora) as “migrant constructions”– public expressions of interconnected sites and multiple mobilities (social, economic, and ethnic) within the urban fabric. Whether circulated in print imagery or embodied by social clubs, migrant constructions not only represented their immigrant sponsors, but also the complex socio-economic trajectories of their patrons between the host country and the “old country,” as well as the transnational and transcultural identities negotiated at the intersection of local and global imaginaries. My project contributes to a greater understanding of diverse transatlantic dialogues circulating in Latin America, as well as the vital role of diaspora communities in the crafting of modernity across the Americas.