From Istanbul to Cottbus - BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg has a new DAAD guest lecturer

Coming from Istanbul University of Technology, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Turgut Saner has been a DAAD guest lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Urban Planning since the beginning of October 2024.

He is currently teaching an English-language seminar on applied History of Art and Museology as well as a study project on the perception of orientalist Architecture. In the 2025 summer semester, he will offer courses on railway station architecture and Baroque architecture. In all four seminars, his aim is to teach specific aspects related to the city of Istanbul and the history of the Ottoman Empire in addition to general subject content.

What the Turkish academic particularly appreciates about his work as a professor is the combination of social and academic aspects. "I see the constant contact with colleagues and students as a great enrichment. I'm also fascinated by doing research and constantly discovering different countries, different settings and different buildings. You could say I've turned my hobby into a profession," he emphasises.

In general, Prof. Saner's research and teaching focuses on late Ottoman art and Architecture as well as archaeology with reference to Greek antiquity in Asia Minor. His interest in these two areas arose during his own studies. As part of his master's thesis, he studied Orientalism and quickly realised that there were significant gaps in research in this field. He came to archaeology and antiquity during his dissertation on Hellenistic masonry.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Turgut Saner has already been at the University of Cottbus from 2019 to 2020 for a research stay as a Mercator Fellow, a programme run by the Mercator Foundation to support researchers, as part of the DFG Graduate College "Cultural and Technical Values of Historic Buildings". During both of his stays, he was and is actively supported by the institute's management.

After just under two months in Cottbus, Professor Saner has already noticed a significant difference between Istanbul University of Technology, where he is currently permanently employed, and BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg: "I already knew from my last stay at BTU that there are many international students with different cultural backgrounds here. I didn't know that from my university in Istanbul. Due to these many backgrounds, it can be challenging to find a common form of exchange, but I find this task exciting and enjoy tackling it."

The scientist has worked as a professor at various universities for many years. His teaching and research activities have taken him to Germany several times in addition to his time at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. He has also worked at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU). The language was usually only a small hurdle for Prof. Saner. As a child, he attended a German school in Istanbul for eight years and was therefore familiar with the language and culture of the country even before his time in Germany.

On Tuesday, 10 December 2024, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Turgut Saner will give his first public lecture in German at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg. Starting at 19:00 in lecture theatre A of the Central Lecture Theatre Building (ZHG) on the Cottbus main campus, he will talk about the multi-layered tradition of European reception in the Ottoman Empire and in modern Turkey under the title "European Reception in Turkish Architecture" . All interested parties are cordially invited to attend.

Background:

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has been funding guest lecturer positions at German universities since 1997. The aim of this programme is to promote the internationalisation of German universities and to strengthen the international dimension in their teaching.