Monday, December 18, 2006
The East-West, Past-Present Continuum
This week we had drinks with Expat Harem friend and fan Dr. Reina Lewis, the new Centenary Professor of Fashion Studies at London College of Fashion (and the author of Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem). Reina was in Istanbul to speak at the International Orientalism Symposium held in memory of the father of Orientalist theory, Edward Said.
Reina was one of our earliest supporters and expert reviewers. Now we are collaborating with her on projects to illustrate the historical and contemporary significance of foreign female views of the Near East. Along with her colleague Dr. Teresa Heffernan of Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada, Reina is the editor of Cultures in Dialogue, a book series which resurrects antique writings about Turkish life by Ottoman, British and American women and refreshes them with contemporary academic analysis.
