Gürbey Hiz is a Visiting Scholar from Kadir Has University, Istanbul. He will be focusing on his postdoctoral research project entitled “Istanbul in Fragments: A Dictionary by Reşad Ekrem Koçu Before the Encyclopedia” in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Supported by a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) fellowship, “Istanbul in Fragments” proposes research on the distinguished writer and historian Koçu’s unknown dictionary of Istanbul, serialized in 1942, two years before the publishing of his incomplete Istanbul Encyclopedia. The research aims to construct a spatially visualized interface of Istanbul Dictionary by using digital humanities methodologies.
Dr. Hiz is an architect and completed his Ph.D. in Architectural Design at Istanbul Technical University in 2020 with a dissertation titled “Servet-i Fünûn'da Toplumsal Mekânın Anlatılar ile Üretimi: Tahayyüller, İnşalar ve Deneyimler Atlası (1891-1910)” [Narrativizing Social Space in Servet-i Fünûn: An Atlas of Imaginations, Constructions and Experiences (1891-1910)]. The dissertation which received a “Best Thesis Awards of 2020” from ITU, focuses on late Ottoman media, modernity and production of social space by employing the approach of media archaeologies to Servet-i Fünûn illustrated magazine. He also publishes a monthly series of writings titled “A’dan Z’ye Servet-i Fünûn Manzaraları” [Scenes of Servet-i Fünûn from A to Z] in online magazine Manifold. Each piece studies specific microhistory from the "Servet-i Fünûn" magazine.
Dr. Hiz is a teaching faculty member in the Architecture Department of Kadir Has University. Besides "Architectural Design Studio” courses, he has taught courses on archıtectural representation and media, such as “Histories of Architectural Image”, “Narrative Processes in Architectural Design”, “Exploring Istanbul” courses in BA and “Research Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches” in MA programs in Architecture. He takes part as a researcher in the ongoing “Reşad Ekrem Koçu and the Incomplete Istanbul Encyclopedia” project under the supervision of Kadir Has University and SALT Research. The research offers cataloging and digitizing of the archive of Koçu, which consists of documents related to the Istanbul Encyclopedia. His academic research topics include architectural representation; visual culture; modernity; social space; media archaeologies; textual studies; periodicals; and Ottoman histories (late 19th-early 20th century).