Back	Saturday Seminars at the Ottoman Bank Museum Dr. Aykut Kansu: The Making of Modern Turkey Assoc. Prof. Aykut Kansu will be speaking at "The Making of Modern Turkey" seminars, presented by the Ottoman Bank Museum on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, on Saturday, March 20, 2004, from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. Organized in association with Boğaziçi University on the theme "Continuity and Disruption in the Turkish Republic" and held on the third Saturday of each month, the seminars involve a general assessment of the past century, followed by a historical discussion of the transformations triggered by the Republic. All 9 seminars focus on issues concerning the state, relations between the individual and civil society, the concept of citizenship, financial and economic change, interventionist and liberal structures, legal order, basic rights and liberties, cultural and artistic progress and the understanding of modernity. The seminars which aim to bring together scholars from different arenas are held in two sessions. Following the presentation of individual papers in the first session, the active participation of the audience in the ensuing discussions is encouraged, in the second session. It is planned to later publish the papers, presented at the seminars, in the form of a book. Assoc. Prof. Aykut Kansu was born in Munich, in 1955. In 1973, he began his studies in political science at Middle East Technical University and completed them at Bogaziçi University, in 1977. He then earned his Ph.d. from MIT- Cambridge. In 1987, he was among the founding editors of the magazine New Perspectives on Turkey and in 1991 he became a faculty member of the department of Political Science and Public Administration at Middle East Technical University. Aykut Kansu has written several books and articles on Turkish politics and has been on the faculty of the History Department at Bilgi University (Istanbul) since 2003.