The Rumi Forum presented “Turkey, Tolerance and the Construction of a Civil Society” with Dr. David C. Cuthell Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University.
In today’s talk, Dr. Cuthell gave a recent history of Turkey’s past society and tolerance, beginning with the Ottoman Empire. Through a thorough policy of tolerance and law, the Ottoman Empire had already laid the foundations for what would become modern-day Turkey, according to Cuthell. With this in mind, as well as a very large growth in civil society — sports, economy, and education, among others– Dr. Cuthell believes that Turkey is set to have a very bright future.
Dr. David C. Cuthell is the Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University. He attended Phillips Academy and Yale, graduating in 1975. He received his MBA from Columbia University in 1979 and received his PhD in History. His research at Columbia focused on the 19th century immigration of Muslims from the Caucasus and the Crimea and their role in transforming late Ottoman Anatolia. Dr. Cuthell has taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey where he headed the Turkish, Middle East and Central Asian Studies Program from 2000 through 2004. Dr. Cuthell is a member of the Advisory Board of the Middle East Institute, a Trustee of Robert College in Istanbul and a Trustee of Paul Smith College in the Adirondacks.