WELCOME to Turkey's First American Studies Departments’ Joint Graduate Conference

We invite you to join us for Turkey's first American Studies Departments’ joint graduate conference on “The Lure of Science and Technology in American Culture and Literature Past, Present, Future.” The American Studies Departments of Ankara University, Atatürk University, Başkent University, Bilkent University, Dokuz Eylül University, Ege University, Hacettepe University, Haliç University, and İstanbul University are collaborating to challenge the rigid boundaries between the arts and sciences, and to explore the impact one has on the other.

Science and technology have traditionally been used in literature as a driving force in provoking thought and action. Common practice is to distinguish the sciences from the humanities; yet, both fields feed on each other in the sense that creativity emerges when we combine knowledge across all disciplines. As organizers of this conference working in the field of American Studies, our main objective is to contribute to the merging of artistic and scientific knowledge, and to new understandings, revisions, reconceptualizations and renegotiations to enhance the ties between science and technology and American literary and cultural products.

The fact that science and technology work in tandem with literature is exemplified best through the function of literary works as tools in conveying often complex scientific narratives to the general public. Many science writers have benefited from the power of literature to capture the human struggle with science by embracing an interdisciplinary approach that revisits the past, understands the present, and speculates on what the future holds. Our objective for this conference is to advance research and scholarship, at the graduate level, on the symbiosis between science and technology and the American literary tradition, for a more reliable and connected world.