Ömür Harmansah
Visiting Assistant Professor:
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World
Phone: 401-863-6411
Email: Omur_Harmansah@brown.edu
Web: http://proteus.brown.edu/harmansah/Home
Currently teaching ancient Near Eastern archaeology/architectural history/material culture at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World in Providence, Rhode Island.
Biography
Born March 25, 1971, a snow-stormy night in Konya, that conservative town, of all places in Turkey, as the first child to a middle class Turkish family from Cappadocia (or better Tabal with Iron age toponymy), an agricultural engineer father and a library scientist mother, who wandered across the country, working for the state farms, dragging their 3 children with them.
Omur ended up studying architecture in Middle East Technical University, Ankara, who knows why, stuck between a naive desire to become a poet and being good at math. His desire to write about buildings rather than designing them, put him inevitably into the field of architectural history (MA in architectural history, METU, Ankara).
His arrival at University of Pennsylvania, threw him to the world of the Ancient Near East and saved him from becoming a boring classical archaeologist and drawing marble pieces forever (he now draws cruder varieties of stone). His last mistake in that sense was to contribute to the Mapping Augustan Rome project with a series of entries, published as a JRA supplement (2002). He recently finished writing a dissertation (which always seemed never-ending) on the utterly esoteric topic of founding new cities in the Ancient Near East.
Interests
Architectural history and material culture of ancient Near East, particularly Syria, Anatolia and Mesopotamia; architectural and archaeological theory; landscape theory; urbanization and urban space; cultural studies; theories of representation; commemorative monuments and collective memory; production and circulation of artisanal knowledge; architectural documentation of archaeological sites.
Degrees
May 2005 - PhD in the History of Art, University of Pennsylvania.
Dissertation: "Spatial Narratives, Commemorative Practices and the Building Project: New Urban Foundations in Upper Syro-Mesopotamia During the Early Iron Age."
1996 - M.A. in the History of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
Thesis; "Drama, Marginality and Space: Architecture of Ritual Action in Archaic Greece; A Hellenistic Paradigm: Pergamum."
1993 - B.Arch in Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
2005 Dorot Foundation Annual Meeting Travel Grant for Archaeological Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, January 6-9, 2005.
2004 Dorot Foundation Annual Meeting Travel Grant for American Schools Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 17-21, 2004.
2003 Carter Manny Citation of Special Recognition Award. Graham Foundation in the Fine Arts, for the dissertation in progress.
2003 Dean’s Scholar, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania.
1999-2003 Kolb Fellowship; Louis J. Kolb Foundation at the University of Archaeology and Anthropology.
1997-1999 Williams Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania, Department
1997 Prof. Dr. Mustafa N. Parlar Education and Research Foundation Technical University (Ankara, Turkey).
1993 Architectural and Urban Planning Competition, 3rd Mension Award, Bostanları Central Business District Rehabilitation and Urban Planning Municipality. With Asli Süha Dönertas, Hilal Ünal and Siyami Türkkan.
1989-1993 Sabanci Foundation fellowship for undergraduate studies.
Affiliations
Society of Architectural Historians
Archaeological Institute of America
American Schools of Oriental Research
College Art Association
