Born and raised on the peripheries of the Russian Empire, Ahmet Caferoğlu studied Oriental Linguistics and Literature at the universities of Baku, Istanbul, Berlin, and Breslau. From 1929 up to his death in 1975, Caferoğlu had decisively contributed to shaping Turkish Turkology through his indispensable research on the dialectology of Turkish and on Old Uyghur; […]

Alevi ritual practice is a significant means in (re)producing a specific Alevi habitus and cultural identity. It is well known that the cem ritual and the emblematic semah were formative in the so-called Alevi revival. Representations of such performances became core symbols of ‘Aleviness’. Despite this, Alevis often complain of a lack of ‘authenticity’ of […]

As the second-oldest branch of Experimental Psychology, the Psychology of Aesthetics investigates the multi-factorial determination of aesthetic appreciation and production. Having focused on various questions in the visual arts, manuscripts are merely beginning to draw more attention from scholars in the field. My talk will trace potential factors influencing aesthetic valuation of manuscripts, and highlight […]