Hi Everyone,
We hope you will join us this Thursday (2/8), at 4PM in Pick Hall 218 (please note the change in location), where we are delighted to join with Turkish Circle in welcoming Dr. Kenan Behzat Sharpe, Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. Kenan will present his ongoing research project, "The Shaky Ground of Turkish Psychedelic Rock."
Dr. Kenan Behzat Sharpe
Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow
Northwestern University
"The Shaky Ground of Turkish Psychedelic Rock"
Thursday, February 8th
4:00PM–5:30PM
Pick 218
Kenan Behzat Sharpe is the 2023-2025 Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University. He completed his PhD in literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2019. His dissertation focused comparatively on the poetry and popular music of 1960s social movements in Turkey and the United States. He is currently writing his first book manuscript: Rockers and Radicals in Anatolia: Turkish Psychedelic Rock and the World 1960s. The project discusses an experimental genre of popular music that combined melodies, instruments, and lyrics from the Turkish countryside with world trends of surf, psychedelic, and progressive rock. It treats Anadolu Rock as a window into the politically turbulent and culturally rich period of the long Turkish 1960s, analyzing music’s central role in Turkish opposition movements and the influence of rural and minority musical traditions on urban youth culture. Before coming to Northwestern, Sharpe conducted field research as a postdoctoral fellow with the American Research Institute in Turkey and also taught literature classes at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. While in Istanbul, he also worked as a journalist, publishing in outlets like the Washington Post and Al-Monitor and working as a columnist for various independent Turkish media outlets. He hosted a weekly show called Pop & Politics on Medyascope featurıng interviews with contemporary musicians, directors, actors, writers, artists, etc. in Turkey.
Those interested in listening to some samples of Anatolian Rock before the talk can find a Spotify playlist composed by Kenan here.
Best wishes,
Theo Knights & Darragh Winkelman