The British Institute at Ankara

🚨 NEWS FROM PROJECTS

Dr Peter Cherry (BIAA Assistant Director) and the BIRI Postdoctoral Fellows for the Ottoman Mobilities and Interactions Project (Aytek Soner Alpan, Mehmet Doğar, Gizem Tongo Overfield Shaw and Ahmet Tekin) report on the Symposium held in Istanbul last month.

As they note: "We’re excited to see the future conversations, collaborations and research directions that the symposium has already begun to spark".

🔗Read more at https://biaa.ac.uk/ottoman-mobilities-and-interactions-symposium/

📹 FILM SCREENING+Q&A

In-person Event

"Remembering Traugott Fuchs: German Exile, Artistic Legacy, and Intellectual Life in Turkey"

🗣 Dr Richard Wittmann (Orient-Institut Istanbul)
📆Thursday, 14 May 2026
⏰17:30 - 18:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
📍BIAA, Atatürk Bulvarı 154/1, Ankara

🔗 Register for in-person attendance at https://biaa.ac.uk/events/remembering-traugott-fuchs/

Happening today!!

Do not forget to register for in-person or online attendance at https://biaa.ac.uk/events/the-house-of-kybele-and-the-last-pagans-of-aphrodisias/

Check our upcoming events at https://biaa.ac.uk/our-events/

📆 BIAA ANKARA LECTURE
Hybrid Event

"The House of Kybele and the last pagans of Aphrodisias: Recent excavation, discoveries, and research"

🗣 Prof Bert Smith (Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford and Bilkent University Department of Archaeology)
📆Tuesday, 5 May 2026
⏰17:30 - 18:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
📍BIAA, Atatürk Bulvarı 154/1, Ankara

🔗 Register for in-person or online attendance at https://biaa.ac.uk/events/the-house-of-kybele-and-the-last-pagans-of-aphrodisias/

✏ BLOG POST

"My time at the BIAA totally changed the trajectory of my life. I had no idea that I would be leaving the BIAA with a path for carving out a career in the humanities.”
— Chris, 2023-4 intern

Every year, the Institute welcomes students and volunteers from a wide range of academic backgrounds to support the activities of the Library and Digital Repository Office. What do they gain? Hands-on experience with collections, digitisation, and archival workflows. Mentorship from dedicated staff. And sometimes, a completely new direction in life ✨

ℹ Read more at https://biaa.ac.uk/internships-and-volunteering-at-biaa/

We’re at BANEA 2026! 🤩

CBRL Director Dr Jane Humphris and The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA)’s Director of Development, Communications and Operations, Martyn Weeds, are at the British Association of Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA) conference. Come and say hello 👋

Find us at the British International Research Institutes (BIRI) stand in the foyer of the UCL Roberts Building to learn more about how BIAA and CBRL can support your research.

We’d love to meet you!

📆 BIAA ANKARA LECTURE
Hybrid Event

"The House of Kybele and the last pagans of Aphrodisias: Recent excavation, discoveries, and research"

🗣 Prof Bert Smith (Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford and Bilkent University Department of Archaeology)
📆Tuesday, 5 May 2026
⏰17:30 - 18:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
📍BIAA, Atatürk Bulvarı 154/1, Ankara

🔗 Register for in-person or online attendance at https://biaa.ac.uk/events/the-house-of-kybele-and-the-last-pagans-of-aphrodisias/

IN-PERSON WORKSHOP IN ISTANBUL
Co-organised by the BIAA, Anamed, and Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

✒️ Organiser: Dr Elif Neyzi (BIAA-Bilkent Üniversitesi Joint Research Fellow)
📆 Monday, 27 April 2026
⏰ 13:30 - 18:30 (Istanbul UTC+3)
📍 ANAMED Auditorium, İstiklal Caddesi No: 181 Merkez Han 34433 Beyoğlu, İstanbul, Türkiye

This in-person event is open to the public, and no registration is required for attendance.

The workshop “Rethinking Late Medieval Practices of Ownership” will take place at ANAMED on 27.04.2026, 13:30–18:30. Panelists will examine how land and property ownership shaped social hierarchies and state structures from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Five early career researchers revisit property distribution across the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and the Balkans. Through charters and legal sources, panelists examine the shifting political territories of Byzantine, Serbian, Armenian, and Ottoman contexts.

The workshop tracks shifting modes of ownership across Eurasia, from Armenian urbanism to the rise of Ottoman absolutism. Panelists inquire whether these legal conventions were borrowed or adopted interculturally during this pivotal era of state-building. Closing remarks will be delivered by Prof. Nevra Necipoğlu, a distinguished scholar specialized in Late Byzantine economic history. Her insights will offer a vital perspective on the legal and social structures defining power across these historic landscapes.

https://anamed.ku.edu.tr/en/events/rethinking-late-medieval-practices-of-ownership-property-authority-and-religious-foundations-from-byzantium-to-the-ottomans/

📆 BIAA ANKARA LECTURE
Hybrid Event

"In the Shadow of the Great Altar? Human-Environment Interaction in Hellenistic and Roman Pergamon"

🗣 Felix Pirson (German Archaeological Institute, Istanbul)
📆Tuesday, 21 April 2026
⏰17:30 - 18:30 (Ankara UTC+3)
📍BIAA, Atatürk Bulvarı 154/1, Ankara

🔗 Register for in-person or online attendance at https://biaa.ac.uk/events/in-the-shadow-of-the-great-altar/

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🚨 Are you an undergraduate, postgraduate or PhD student in any discipline within the humanities and social sciences studying Türkiye and/or the Black Sea region at a UK university? Are you interested in making a research trip to the region, and/or participating in a fieldwork project?
If so, join us on the evening of Thursday 16th April for a webinar on how the British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) can support you!
➖
🗣 Martyn Weeds and Peter Cherry (BIAA)
📆Thursday, 16th April 2026
⏰18:00 - 19:00 (London BST)
📍Zoom
ℹ REGISTER at https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gLdDiziIT1ySt1ojE6FHtQ

Dr Lutgarde Vandeput (BIAA Director) and Dr Peter Cherry (BIAA Assistant Director & PI of the BIRI Ottoman Mobilities and Interactions Project – OMI) warmly welcome delegates to the OMI Symposium at Sabancı Üniversitesi, Istanbul.

May these two days be productive, inspiring, and filled with rich discussion on Ottoman mobilities, interactions, and cross-cultural exchange. Looking forward to the insights and connections that will emerge!