Summertime research: Dr Şizen Yiacoup

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Moriscos, Ottoman Turks, Religious conflict

This summer, Dr Şizen Yiacoup, Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, will be working on an English translation of the sixteenth-century Spanish novel known as the Viaje de Turquía. Her aim is to make this important and previously untranslated text accessible to a wider cross-section of readers than ever before, a factor which she believes is of great significance due to the book’s potential to enrich our appreciation of Renaissance Humanist literature on the Ottoman Turks and renew and develop the discussion around Turkish-European relations from the early modern period to the present day.

Kara-Kevi Galata Bridge, Constantinople

Given that the presence of Moriscos (descendants of Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity in the 1500s) in Spain was seen as untenable due to their potential to act as collaborators with the Ottomans, another of Dr Yiacoup objectives in producing an English translation of the Viaje de Turquía is to encourage a more nuanced understanding of Habsburg Spain’s relations with the Ottoman Turks in comparison to its relations with its own subjects of Muslim descent.

In addition to her translation, Dr Yiacoup is also completing a chapter on religious conflict and coexistence that will form part of an e-textbook being published by Liverpool University Press. The e-textbook, which is being edited by Dr Jon Hogg in the Department of History with contributions from historians across the School and partners such as the University of Georgia, will draw heavily on the resources available in the Special Collections & Archives housed in the University’s Sydney Jones Library, and seeks to serve as a detailed guide for undergraduates getting to grips with using primary sources for their own research. Some of the key primary sources that Dr Yiacoup discusses in her chapter include the laws on the construction of mosques and the conversion of Muslims contained in the thirteenth-century Castilian law code known as the Siete Partidas.

Alfonso X of Castile and the Siete Partidas

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UGA graduate fellowship at the Department of Modern Languages & Cultures

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Doctoral Research Fellow, Hispano-Muslims, UGA

Julia Claire Hernández, PhD student in Hispanic Studies at the Department of Romance Languages, Franklin College, University of Georgia (UGA), will visit Liverpool next month, having been awarded a prestigious Franklin College-University of Liverpool Doctoral Research Fellowship. During her visit, Julia will be drawing on her research on late medieval and early modern Spanish literature in order to deliver a guest lecture on the final-year undergraduate module HISP327 ‘Resistance & Renewal: Spanish Poetry from the Folk Songs of the Frontier to the Slam Sessions of Madrid’, co-taught by Drs Diana Cullell and Şizen Yiacoup. In addition to meeting with staff and postgraduates in Modern Languages & Cultures and History and conducting research in the Special Collections & Archives, Julia will present a research paper on the depiction of monstrous races in the first European accounts of the Americas as part of the postgraduate ‘tertulia’ series.

The University of Georgia campus

Julia’s doctoral studies explore how conceptions of “self” and “otherness” shaped Castilian identity in the era of first contact with the Americas. She has previously been taught by Dr Yiacoup, who guest lectured at UGA in autumn 2014 through the Franklin College-University of Liverpool Faculty Exchange programme and will be mentoring Julia during her visit.

Modern Languages & Cultures has taken an active role in the University of Liverpool’s partnership with the University of Georgia, of which this is just one example. In particular, colleagues from Spanish have participated in the schemes which operate to increase mobility between Merseyside and Athens, GA.

Faculty Exchange and Mobility: Bringing Spanish Medieval Poetry to Georgia and Lisbon

Sizen Yiacoup (IBLAS) spent three days lecturing at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa last month having been awarded an Erasmus + Staff Mobility grant to teach a guest slot on her research specialism, medieval Spanish poetry, on the Nova’s undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Traditional Literature. The visit led to an invitation to return to the Nova in future sessions and to collaborate in teaching and research projects with the Head of the Department of Portuguese Studies, Dr Teresa Araujo.

Students from the University of Georgia, Athens. Photo courtesy of Sizen Yiacoup.

This was followed by a week teaching at the University of Georgia, Athens (USA), in November 2014 as part of the Franklin International Faculty Exchange programme, which supports exchange visits and fosters collaboration between research staff and students at UGA and Liverpool. During her visit Dr Yiacoup delivered classes on Dr Dana Bultman’s module on medieval Spanish literature and gave a University-wide lecture on her research specialism, the Spanish frontier ballads. The visit was a memorable and rewarding experience for Dr Yiacoup, who says that “Having the opportunity to see first-hand how the university system works in the States and to meet staff and students working in my field, all of whom were incredibly hospitable, enthusiastic and willing to share their time and experience with me was a tremendous privilege and an experience I won’t forget. ”