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Master's Tea with Bülent Atalay

Science Through Art and Art Through Science

Bulent Atalay presents science through art, and art through science, and approaches the larger goal of achieving a synthesis of the two fields. He invokes the model of Leonardo part-time artist, passionate scientist, consummate inventor. The qualities of timelessness and universality in Leonardo's miraculous works speak eloquently for themselves. With Leonardo's model providing the unifying thread, however, it becomes possible, first, to glimpse Leonardo's restless intellect, that extraordinary psyche; second, to see whence the ideas for his works of art came; and ultimately to appreciate his art at a different level. A highlight of Professor Atalays talk will be Leonardo's Turkish connection. In 1953 a scholar, carrying out an inventory of the documents in the archives of the Topkapi Palace, uncovered a letter from Leonardo to the Court of Sultan Beyazit. Written exactly five hundred years earlier, Leonardo was seen offering his services as a military engineer in Istanbul, and proposing to build a single-arch bridge over the Golden Horn.

Master's Tea with Verena Knaus

Pierson Master

ESI senior Analysts and Yale World Fellow'07 Verena Knaus, along with her colleague, Nigar Göksel, from the Turkish Office of European Stability Initiative addressed a crowd of ~40 people on the conditions and changing role of women in contemporary Kosovo and Turkey at a Master's Tea event at Pierson College.

Ms. Goksel was invited to the Yale Campus by Verena specifically for this talk, following her presentation at Princeton. The speakers were introduced by Gemma Bloemen. The event was concluded with a master's dinner for the speakers and interested students.

The following day Verena also talked on 'The EU and the Western Balkans: European Soft Power and the Long Road to Membership' with Ivo Banac (Yale professor and Member of Croatian Parliament) and David Cameron (Head of European Studies Department in Yale) at the MacMillan Center.


Letters from Istanbul:

Turkish Poetry in Translation

Three Turkish poets, Seyhan Erozcelik, Lale Muldur and Guven Turan, were invited to read and discuss their poetry. Their translator Murat Nemet-Nejat accompanied them. They stayed in US for ten days, and visited other universities as well. Yale was their first venue. Yale students and faculty, as well as members of the larger New Haven and Connecticut community attended the event. Sibel Erol (NYU, Yale) introduced the poets. It took approximately 2 hours. The poets were taken to lunch by Mrs. Selma Searfoss, sponsor of the event. A dinner with selected faculty and students followed the event. The books and journals of the poets were displayed during the event. This was the first event of its kind on Yale campus. It was also the first major event sponsored by the Cagatay Family Fund. Efe Murat Balikcioglu, an undergraduate student at Princeton, joined the poets and was with them all the time.