Review of the Research Institute for History and - Universiteit Utrecht

A. Documentation regarding the level of the research programme
Title of the programme:
Oriental Studies
Starting Date:
1994
Research area:
Islamitic mysticism, heterodox islam, modernity & tradition in the islam
Programme leader:
Prof. F. de Jong
Affi liations outside the institute (e.g. research school) and other cooperations and
relations with national and international research groups:
Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies
(CNWS)
International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM)
International Institute for Social History (IISG)
A 1. Leadership
With 3,38 fte this is the smallest group within OGC. It consists of 2 full professors,
1 extra-ordinary professor, 4 assistant professors, and 1 PhD-student. Researchers
in the programme are affi liated with the Chair of Islamic Languages and Cultures.
The programme leader prof. Frederick de Jong is responsible for the internal
coordination and cooperation. This happens in close collaboration with the other
chair holder prof. Martin van Bruinessen. The programme leader represents the
programme in the meetings of the programme-committee of the Research
Institute. Crucial aspects of the multi-dimensional leadership role are facilitating
research, monitoring output, and initiatives aimed at retaining research capacity.
A 2. Strategy and policy
The research of the Utrecht Oriental Studies group focuses on intercultural
communication and interactions in the World of Islam. The three main areas of
research are Islamic mysticism, heterodox Islam, and the dialectics of modernity
and (the construction of) tradition. The group’s research combines historicalphilological
and social science methods. It seeks to incorporate recent theoretical
developments on inter-culturalism, inter-cultural communication and the constructions
of identities. Much of the research relates to the Turco-Iranian world,
past and present.
Work on recent issues in the region includes Van Bruinessen’s research on the
construction of ethnical and religious identities among Turkey’s minorities such as
the Kurds, Cherkes, Laze and Zaza-speaking ethno-linguistics communities, as well
as religious communities, such as Sunni Muslims, Alevis and Yezidis. Van Bruinessen
is especially interested in the transformation of their largely oral cultures while
entering into modern media domains, and the impact of migration and globalisation
on these communities. His projects are closely related with the project he
simultaneously coordinates at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in
the Modern World (ISIM) in Leiden. Dr Nico Landman investigates the history of
the Nurculuk movement in Turkey, and the ideas of its founder, Said Nursu
(1876-1960), while dr Turaj Atabaki is undertaking a comparative study of authoritarian
modernisation in Turkey, Iran and Central Asia during the fi rst half of the
twentieth century.
OGC Oriental Studies
248