Aslıhan Günhan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Contact
Room: FF 206
E-Mail: aslihan.gunhan [at] bilkent.edu.tr
Pages
Aslıhan Günhan received her PhD in the History of Architecture and Urban Development Program at Cornell University in 2023. Her first book project, “Displaced Modernities: The Ottoman Empire, Turkey and the Specters of Armenian Architects,” is an architectural study of the displacement of Armenians from the Ottoman Empire, their silenced legacy in the built environment, and the contested modernity in Turkey which crafts a legal basis for the confiscation of properties, dispossession of ex-citizens and bureaucracy of denial. Günhan’s research has garnered support from numerous institutions, including the Getty Research Institute, SSRC IDRF, Fulbright Program, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Einaudi Center Institute for European Studies, and SALT Research. Her scholarly contributions extend to edited volumes such as Art and Architecture of Migration and Discrimination (2023) and peer-reviewed journals like Yıllık: Annual of Istanbul Studies (2023). She received her B.Arch. and M.Arch. degrees from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey. She previously held a research position at MoMA and teaching positions at Cornell and METU. Currently, she is teaching 3rd year design studios.
Publications (Selected)
Aslıhan Günhan (2023). “Displaced Modernities: The Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and the Specters of Armenian Builders,” PhD Dissertation, Cornell University.
Aslıhan Günhan (2023). “Bourgeois Wealth, Architecture and Infrastructure: Azaryan Family in the Late Ottoman Istanbul,” in Capitalistic Urbanization in Late Ottoman Istanbul: Armenian Agencies dossier, Tolga Cora and Umit Firat Acikgoz ed., YILLIK: Annual of Istanbul Studies, vol. 5, pp: 67-93. https://doi.org/10.53979/yillik.2023.5
Aslıhan Günhan (2023). “Living on another displacement’s ruins: Adana’s Döşeme Neighborhood in Turkey,” in Art and Architecture of Migration and Discrimination, Esra Akcan and Iftikhar Dadi ed., Routledge, Pp: 33-42. https://doi-org.proxy.library.cornell.edu/10.4324/9781003410010
Aslıhan Günhan (2023). “Vedat Özsan’la Geriye Dönük Bir Sözlü Tarih Denemesi: Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Yapısı ve 1950-1980 Arası Mimarlık Pratiği (A Retrospective Oral History Inquirt with Vedat Ozsan: Ministry of National Education Building and Architectural Practice Between 1950-1980)” in Vedat Ozsan, Nuray Bayraktar ed., VEKAM Publications. Pp: 50-69.
Aslıhan Günhan (2021). “Seyahat halinde bir arşiv ve çoğunlukçu olmayan mimarlık tarihi yazımı: Osmanlı Mimarlığı ve Balyan Arşivi’ne bakmak (Traveling Archive and writing a non-majoritarian architectural history: Looking at Ottoman Architecture and the Balyan Archive)” Mimarlık Dergisi, vol. 421, September-October 2021.
Aslıhan Günhan (2021). “Gönç Palas Broşürü ve Postmodern Sentezler (Gonc Palas Brochure and Postmodern Synthesis)” Postmodern Ankara Dossier, Bülent Batuman ed., Solfasol, vol. 98, March 2021.
Aslıhan Günhan (2019). “Çatlaklar ve Çokluklar: 23,5 Hrant Dink Hafıza Mekanı (Fissures and Plentitudes: The 23.5 Hrant Dink Space of Memory)” in Mimarlık, vol. 409, September-October 2019.
Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)
Getty Research Institute Predoctoral Residential Fellowship 2021 – 2022
Fulbright Scholarship 2014-2015
Cornell University History of Architecture and Urban Development Program Research Funding 2022
SALT Research Institute Research Fellowship 2021
Einaudi Center Institute for European Studies Graduate Research Grant 2021
Cornell University Robert D. and Bonnie G. MacDougall Memorial Scholarship 2021
SSRC Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellowship 2019-2020
Society for Humanities Timothy Murray Dissertation Research Travel Grant 2019
Einaudi Center International Research Travel Grant 2019
Cornell Institute for European Studies Sidney Tarrow Paper Prize 2018
Cornell Institute of Comparative Modernities Reading Group Grant 2017
The Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East and North Africa Ottoman Language Education Grant 2016
Curatorial Work (Selected)
Aslıhan Günhan (Curator), “A Monologue? A Dialogue? Re-reading 1873 Vienna World Exhibition,” Cornell University AAP, Ithaca NY, 2017
Aslıhan Günhan (Research Assistant), “The Endless House,” Curated by Pedro Gadanho, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, 2015
Aslıhan Günhan (Research Assistant), “A Japanese Constellation,” Curated by Pedro Gadanho, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, 2015
Aslıhan Günhan (Designer), “Re-ACT Re-Reading Architecture as a Cultural Transformation,” Curated by Ayşen Savaş and Murat Germen, Berlin Deutsche Architektur Zentrum, Berlin, Germany and TSMD Architecture Center, Ankara, Turkey, 2012.
Invited Lectures (Selected):
“Imperial Scramble for Humanitarianism: Displacement and Architecture of Aid,” Kent Enstituleri, January 2024, Ankara, Turkey.
“Architectural Histories of Violence and Care,” TEDU Department of Architecture, Graduate Program in Architecture, November 2023, Ankara, Turkey.
“Reassembling the Fragments: Humanitarianism, Orphan Care and Architecture Against Displacement,” Getty Research Institute, June 2022, Los Angeles, CA.
“Kamp Armen: Bir Modern İnşa, Çevre, Mülkiyet ve Yıkım Öyküsü (Kamp Armen: A modern history of construction, environment, property rights, and destruction),” Salt Research Institute, December 2021, Istanbul, Turkey.
“Politics of Architectural Detail: Nişan Yaubyan’s Practice,” Chamber of Architects of Turkey, May 2021, virtual.
“Towards a Non-Majoritarian Architectural History: Azaryan Mansion and Displaced Modernities,” Architectural Association 1927, April 2019, Ankara, Turkey.
“Buildings that die than once: Hagia Sophia in its multilayered Context,” University of Buffalo, Department of Architecture, October 2018, Buffalo, NY.
“Italian Rationalism and Aldo Rossi,” Cornell University Department of Architecture, March 2018, Ithaca, NY.
“Renaissance in the Mediterranean, Palladio and Mimar Sinan in Dialogue,” Cornell University Department of Architecture, November 2017, Ithaca, NY
