Dr Sevcan Ercan

Istanbul Medeniyet University, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Faculty Member

University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, Alumnus

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Dr. Sevcan Ercan is currently a lecturer in the department of Architecture at Istanbul Medeniyet University. After receiving her BArch from Middle East Technical University and an MSc in History of Architecture from Istanbul Technical University, Sevcan relocated to London in order to pursue her MA in Architectural History (2013) followed by a PhD in Architectural History and Theory (2020) at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her doctoral research examined the spatial histories of displacement and emplacement on the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) in the north Aegean, which involved extensive documentation of the endangered vernacular architecture still in place. Current publications include the edited volume Architectures of Emergency in Turkey: Heritage, Displacement and Catastrophe published by I.B.Tauris (2021).
Supervisors: Iain Borden and Jane Rendell

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Co-organized events by Dr Sevcan Ercan

Field as Archive / Archive as Field: Architectural Insights from Contemporary Turkey

by Eray Çaylı, Pınar Aykaç, and Dr Sevcan Ercan

This symposium aims to open a discussion on the ways in which architectural researchers’ experien... more This symposium aims to open a discussion on the ways in which architectural researchers’ experiences during fieldwork and/or archival work shape architectural history and theory, with a specific focus here on recent and ongoing research in Turkey. Architectural researchers often encounter unforeseeable issues while working in archives or fields. How might they make these issues into the very stuff of the histories and theories they produce? The symposium explores this question through specific reflections and insights from Turkey, a context that over the past few decades has seen the sort of social and political fluctuations that amplify the unpredictability of fieldwork and archival work. It consists of a series of invited papers that discuss the following:

- changes in the positionality of the researcher;
- dynamics between intellectual autonomy and social debt to interlocutors;
- consent, constraint, surveillance, accessibility issues, and (self-)censorship;
- use and abuse of archives and other source material;
- psychological and ethical implications;
- narrative forms, structures, and styles through which the above might be written into architectural histories and theories.

While discussions on the above-mentioned topics are prevalent across various other disciplines such as anthropology, geography, and archaeology, architectural history and theory tend to gloss over them. This symposium, therefore, aims to create a platform for the exchange of scholarly tactics and strategies that help work through challenges of architectural research generally. A nuanced awareness of the challenges faced during spatially oriented archival research or fieldwork in an increasingly socially and politically volatile global context, we hope, will benefit not just those interested in the architecture of Turkey – or indeed in architectural history and theory per se – but also those operating in other settings or spatial disciplines marked by challenges to public space and critical thought.

To find out more and book a place, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/field-as-archive-archive-as-field-architectural-insights-from-contemporary-turkey-tickets-32921488057

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Books and book chapters by Dr Sevcan Ercan

The Politics of Normalcy: Examining the festival on the island of Imbros/ Gökçeada

Architectures of Emergency in Turkey, 2021

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Journal articles by Dr Sevcan Ercan

Spaces of Displacement on the Island of Imbros/Gökçeada

Space and Culture, 2023

This article investigates spaces of displacement within the context of Imbros, employing it as a ... more This article investigates spaces of displacement within the context of Imbros, employing it as a case study to provide a novel perspective on the global phenomenon of displacement. Imbros/Gökçeada is a Turkish island in the Aegean Archipelago, currently inhabited by Turkish citizens from the mainland plus an indigenous community known as Rums or Asia Minor Greeks-an ethnic group who have faced waves of systematic displacement from the island during the twentieth century since the demise of the Ottoman Empire. While the displacement of Imbrian Rums intensified between the period 1963 and 1980, the island simultaneously began to accommodate a growing number of Turkish residents, most of whom were emplaced by the Turkish authorities into the statebuilt villages on Imbros. Since the late 1990s however, a return movement of the displaced Rum community to Imbros has gradually emerged through the revitalization of several Rum rituals on the island. As a result of these multiple temporal and spatial layers of displacement witnessed on Imbros, the question of how to better understand the phenomenon of displacement arose. To that end the concept of positionality is deployed as a lens through which to analyze the various phases and spaces of displacement as they have occurred on Imbros itself, and from this, I produce the observation that the spatial phenomenon of displacement on Imbros is actually an entanglement of displacement, emplacement and return (re-emplacement).

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Conference Papers by Dr Sevcan Ercan

Imbros/Gökçeada’s Disembodied Heritage: Sites of Conflict, Actors and Processes

Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Conference Sites of Memory, Sites of Loss: Politics of Archaeology and Heritage in Turkey and Post-Ottoman Lands Sites of Memory, Sites of Loss: Politics of Archaeology and Heritage in Turkey and Post-Ottoman Lands, 2022

This paper explores the process of heritage-making in relation to the island of Imbros/Gökçeada. ... more This paper explores the process of heritage-making in relation to the island of Imbros/Gökçeada. This process began in 1985 and is deeply affected by political and socioeconomical turbulences the island has endured. Since 1985 heritage has been an instrumental concept for both spatial and socio-cultural transformation of the island, and likewise Imbros stands as an illustrative exemplar of the multifaceted nature of the role of the Turkish state in heritage management. The primary focus of the paper is on archival records found in various Turkish institutions, those of which have either been involved in or contested the designation of Imbros’ cultural and natural heritage sites. With the help of these records, and via analyzing selected heritage sites, the paper shows the ways in which Imbros’ heritage values have been conceptualized and managed by the Turkish authorities, while also investigating the inner dynamics and politics of heritage-making especially within contested territories associated with ethnic-based conflicts.

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