Back	Conversion as Citizenship: Conversion, Apostasy and the Tanzimat State The series of monthly seminars, "Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean", organized by the Ottoman Bank Museum in collaboration with Alpha Bank and the History Department of Boğaziçi University, continues this month on the topic of "Conversion and Citizenship". Prof. Selim Deringil, chair of the History Department at Boğaziçi University, will be our guest speaker with a lecture delivered in English, titled, "Conversion as Citizenship: Conversion, Apostasy and the Tanzimat State", scheduled for Friday, December 17, at 3:00 p.m. Selim Deringil will provide a critical analysis of the period extending from the proclamation of the Tanzimat Edict, in 1839, to the promulgation of the new reform charter, the famous Reform Edict of 1856. This was a period characterized both by great uncertainty and attempts at broad reform and reorganization. The lecture will address, in particular, changing equilibria within the issue of religious freedom - one of the biggest uncertainties of the era -and examine the evolution of the relationship between the state and non-Muslim communities. Prof. Selim Deringil holds a B.A. in European History and Languages and a Ph.D. in History both from the University of East Anglia and he has taught at universities in the US, the UK, France, and Israel. His areas of interests focus on political and cultural history and he is the author of several books on Ottoman and Turkish history including, "The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876-1909" and "Turkish Foreign Policy during the Second World War: An 'Active' Neutrality". Deringil has conducted extensive research on late Ottoman history and the period of Abdülhamid II. The new series of monthly seminars, "Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean", focuses on the Greek-Orthodox populations of the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. Seminar speakers provide comprehensive information on the subject and display special awareness of the delicate historical context. Admission to the seminars is free. Prof. Haris Exertzoglou will be our next speaker at the fourth conference in the series, scheduled for Friday, February 18, 2005.