RABIA HARMANSAH
PhD Candidate
E-mail: rah48@pitt.edu
Research
Interests
Cultural
anthropology; anthropology of religion, Islam and Orthodox Christianity,
Mysticism-Sufism, religious practices; ethnic conflict, nationalism; body and
place, collective memory; Cyprus, Turkey, the Balkans and the Middle East.
Education
2006 M.S. in the
2005 The
Early Section of Harvard-Koç
University Intensive Ottoman and Turkish Summer School in Turkey, (July 4- August 12, Cunda, Ayvalık).
2000 B.S. in Public Administration. Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences (
Fellowships
2008-2009 University
of Pittsburgh Scholarship
2008 National Science
Foundation (NSF) grant toward the project “Secularizing Sacred Sites: The
Museumification of Two Saints’ Shrines in Turkey (Mawlana Jalal-ad-Din Rumi and
Haci Bektash Veli)” (Project Director: Robert M. Hayden)
2007-2008 University of
Pittsburgh Scholarship
2007 Conference Grant, University
of Pittsburgh, Department of
Anthropology and The Center for
Russian and East Europen Studies (REES)
2005 Koç University
Grant Toward Tuition for Harvard-Koç
University Intensive Ottoman and Turkish Summer School in Turkey
Research Projects
2008 Field Researcher. “Secularizing Sacred Sites:
The Museumification of Two Saints’ Shrines in Turkey (Mawlana Jalal-ad-Din Rumi
and Haci Bektash Veli)” supported by National
Science Foundation (NSF) (Project Director: Robert M. Hayden)
2007-2009
Research Assistant. "Antagonistic Tolerance: Long-Term Sharing of and
Competition over Religious Sites in Turkey" supported by International
Collaborative Research Grant, Wenner Gren Foundation, and National Science Foundation (NSF) (Project
Director Robert M.
Hayden, Co-directors in
Work Experience
2008-2009 Teaching Fellow for the course Introduction to
Cultural Anthropology at University
of Pittsburgh
2007 Guest-editor of the Issue Entitled “Türkiye’de Din
Eğitimi ve Kitapları [Religious Education and Religious Textbooks in
Turkey]” of Kırkbudak:
Anadolu Halk İnançları Araştırmaları [Kırkbudak:
Journal of Anatolian Folk Beliefs]
2006-2008 Member
of the Editorial Board of Kırkbudak: Anadolu Halk
İnançları Araştırmaları [Kırkbudak: Journal
of Anatolian Folk Beliefs]
Publications
Forthcoming.
“Haci Bektash Veli”, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic World. John L.
Esposito, Editor-in-chief. [co-authored with Aykan Erdemir]
2006 “Turnanın Semahı, Ezoterizmin Zamanı: Bektaşi ve Alevi Zaman Kavrayışları”
[Semah Dance of the Crane, Time of Esoterism: Bektashi and Alevi Time Conceptualizations], Cogito, no.46, pp. 260-279. [co-authored with Aykan Erdemir]
2006 “Geçmişin Saatini Kurmak: Bektaşiler, Tarih ve Zaman”
[Establishing the Time of the Past: Bektashis, History and Time], Kırkbudak: Anadolu Halk İnançları Araştırmaları [Kırkbudak: Journal of Anatolian Folk
Beliefs], vol.2,
no.6, pp. 69-77.
Presentations
2008 “An Overview of the Temple of Augustus and the Haci
Bayram Mosque”, Social Anthropology
Graduate Student Symposium on “Perceptions and Practices Around the Temple of
Augustus and the Haci Bayram Mosque”, Middle
East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey (June 3).
2007 “Mystical Aspects of ‘Disenchantment’ in Turkey: Uncanny Roots of the
Secular Republic in Bektashi Imaginations”, 2007
Annual Meeting of the Middle East Studies Association of
North America (MESA), Montréal, Canada (November 17-21).
2006 “Redefining the Past: How Bektashis
Accommodated the Abolition of Their Religious Order”, 40th Annual Meeting of the Middle
East Studies Association of North America (MESA), Boston Massachusetts,
USA (November 18-21).
2006 “Tarikatların
Yasaklanması ve Sonrasında Mevleviler” [The Mevlevis After the
Abolition of Dervish Orders], Düşünce
ve Sanatta Mevlânâ Uluslararası Sempozyum [International Symposium on
Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi in Thought and Art],
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University,
Faculty of Theology, Gelibolu, Turkey (May 25-28).
Translations
2006 Erdemir, Aykan and Ali Yaman. “Alevism-Bektashism: A
Brief Introduction” [Alevilik-Bektasilik Nedir?]
Professional Affiliations
2007 American Anthropological Association (AAA)
2006 Middle East Studies Association of
North America (MESA)
2006 Anadolu Halk İnançları
Derneği [Association for the Research of
Anatolian Folk Beliefs] (AHAD)
Languages
Turkish (main tongue)
English (advanced)
Ottoman Turkish (advanced: printed and manuscript)
Arabic (intermediary)
French
(preliminary)
Modern
Greek (preliminary)
Other
Interests
Playing piano (classical & jazz)
Last updated August 24, 2008.