That’s What She Said

Students often spend a semester abroad during their college experience, but rarely do professors have the same opportunity. Mark P. Gingerich, James S. Britton Professor of European History here at Ohio Wesleyan, returned to campus in January after spending a semester in Turkey.

Gingerich was invited to teach at the Center for Russian Studies at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey as a visiting lecturer for the fall of 2007. The university was the first private university in Turkey.

“They offered me the position for a year,” Gingerich said, “but I couldn’t swing that.” Instead, he opted for one semester.

Though he was formally a part of the International Studies department at Bilkent, Gingerich taught strictly history courses.

At OWU, Gingerich has specialized in modern European history since 1991, where his course on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany is extremely popular among students. At Bilkent, his classes covered a broader timeline.

At the undergraduate level, Gingerich lectured on European political and diplomatic affairs spanning the years 1648 to 1914. He also taught a graduate seminar on the affairs of the Soviet Union during World War II.

In comparing OWU to Bilkent, Gingerich said most students were of the same high caliber.

The main difference though, was that while the university was an English-based institution, most of the students were not native English speakers.

“I found that a constant challenge,” he said. “I had to make sure I always spoke clearly. I tried to say everything twice using different ords and terms.”

Opportunities like this are not unheard of, but generally professors ave to apply for programs such as these through scholarly programs like Fulbright. In Gingerich’s case the opportunity arose out of his personal and professional connection with the director of the Center for Russian Studies.

“I got a phone call and was asked if I wanted to do it. It was not something I had to apply for. It was an invitation so I decided to take it,” he said.

Gingerich was accompanied by his wife, Suzan Osman, instructor of Middle Eastern history at OWU, and their twin daughters. The opportunity to share the experience with his family was ultimately what sold Gingerich on the trip.

“Quite honestly, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.

Gingerich’s connection to the director of the Russian Studies Center is not the only connection he has to Turkey. His wife previously ived in Istanbul in the 1980s and is fluent in Turkish.

“If she had no connection, I would have still thought about it because I have friends in the faculty at Bilkent,” Gingerich said.

The opportunity to return to Turkey was exciting to Osman and it had always been a dream of hers to return. As for the couple’s eleven year old daughters, it was hard to transition to living in another country.

“They really missed their friends [and] they missed their school,” Gingerich said.

“They made friends at school and we have family friends with girls right about their age, but we were kind of isolated,” he said. “We lived on campus and there weren’t a lot of kids right in the apartment block where we were.”

Gingerich said that while the experience was positive, it was also unusual.

“To be in a different country, to teach European history in English; there are very few opportunities in Europe to do that. If you’re teaching American history and you are an American, you have a much better chance of being brought somewhere else.”

Gingerich said it was more common to bring in someone from a European background to teach European history rather than an American.

When asked if he would pursue the opportunity again if it should present itself, Gingerich said he would seriously consider it.

“It’s quite disruptive for one’s family. If I do it again in the future I would probably wait until my daughters are in college so it would just be my wife and I.”

Gingerich also said that his decision would depend on the location.

He knows the area of Ankara now and thanks to sightseeing trips he has seen at least some of Turkey outside the capital city.

“We took every opportunity we could [to explore]. It was difficult of course because I was teaching five days a week and my daughters were in school for a very long school day,” he said. “But we made it to Istanbul a couple of times [and] we went up to the Black Sea region.”

After pushing up his final exams due to the overlapping schedules with OWU, Gingerich and his family spent a few days in Munich, Germany before returning home.

The experience may have been a once in a lifetime opportunity and a lot of fun, but Gingerich seemed happy to be back.

From: Volume 146, Issue 17: February 28, 2008