Turkish Modernism has been extensively studied, particularly as part of a regime-building, top-down state project and in relation to émigré western European architects of the interwar period. Modern architecture narratives of the period along those lines have already been welll established both locally and in global architectural history scholarships. Yet, these oftrepeated narratives are quite limited in foregrounding the contributions of women, minority groups, and other marginalized identities, classes, and professions in shaping twentieth-century modernism/modern architecture in Turkey. We would like to tackle those gaps in a workshop/marathon in Architectural Historiography that we are planning in relation to the opening of the exhibition “Expanding Agency: Women, Race and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture” in Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture—a signature building of mid-century modernism co-authored by a woman architect, Altuğ Çinici.
We invite graduate and undergraduate architecture and architectural history students to this one-day workshop in uncovering overlooked actors and agencies of architectural modernisms in Turkey. Our goal is to gather new data and create a platform for sharing new research on non-Muslim/minority and women architects, contractors, builders, journalists, authors, editors, curators, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, institutions, homeowners, patrons, architects, contractors, builders, heritage specialists, and workers whose contributions have been silenced in existing historical narratives. The workshop will be a mini marathon in architectural historiography, engaging ten to fifteen architecture students in collaborative research that focuses on adding new actors from Turkey. Over the course of an intensive day, participants will investigate figures/institutions whose influence operated through various roles. Each student will produce a short video profile of their selected actor, contributing to a collectively authored “board of new agents,” a dynamic network visualization using an open-source software (GraphCommons) that maps possible intellectual, professional, and/or geographic connections among these women and other marginalized actors. This pedagogical model transforms students from passive recipients of architectural history into active knowledge producers, while the resulting digital map will serve as a mock-up of a larger research tool. We aim to engage students of architecture and architectural history with critical historiography regarding modern architecture.
• Send your abstracts (around 300 words) stating your interest in the subject and your proposed actor(s) alongside your short bios to expandingagency.metu@gmail.com by 1 September 2026. (For those who prefer, we will provide a list of actors to work on).
• Selections will be announced in late September 2026.
• The workshop will take place on October 23, 2026, before the opening of the exhibition “Expanding Agency: Women, Race and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture” at the METU Faculty of Architecture.
Organization: METU Graduate Program in Architectural History