Taner Akcam, Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorDepartment of History
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477
Phone: (508) 421-3863
E-mail: takcam@clarku.edu
Born in the province of Ardahan, Akçam graduated from Middle East Technical University in Ankara and emigrated to Germany, where he worked as a research scientist in the sociology department at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Akçam earned his doctorate from the University of Hannover with a dissertation on The Turkish National Movement and the Armenian Genocide Against the Background of the Military Tribunals in Istanbul Between 1919 and 1922.
Akçam’s initial research topic was the history of political violence and torture in late Ottoman and early Republican Turkey. Since 1990, however, he has focused his attention on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide, with eleven books and numerous articles to his credit.
With his first book, Türk Ulusal Kimligi ve Ermeni Sorunu (The Armenian Question and Turkish National Identity, Istanbul: Iletisim, 1992), Akçam became the first scholar of Turkish origin to publish on this heretofore taboo topic. Three years later, at the International Genocide Conference in Yerevan, Armenia, Akçam’s presentation on Turkish nationalism and the Armenian Genocide marked the first public acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide by a Turkish lecturer. Türk Ulusal Kimligi ve Ermeni Sorunu has appeared in six Turkish editions as well as Russian, Armenian, and Arabic translations.
Dialogue Across an International Divide: Essays Towards a Turkish-Armenian Dialogue (Cambridge, Mass., and Toronto: Zoryan Institute, 2001) introduced Akçam’s ideas to an English-speaking readership. Two full-length scholarly studies followed: From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004) and A Shameful Act: the Armenian Genocide and Turkish Responsibility (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2006), which won the 2007 Minnesota Book Award for general nonfiction and has been translated into Greek, Rumanian, Dutch and French.
Akçam’s latest book, ‘Ermeni Meselesi Hallolunmustur’ Osmanli Belgelerine Göre Savas Yillarinda Ermenilere Yönelik Politikalar (The Armenian Issue is Resolved: Policies Towards Armenians During the War Years, Based on Ottoman Documents, Istanbul: Iletisim, 2008) is already in its third printing. Forthcoming in Turkish and English is The Protocols of the Istanbul Military Tribunals on the Investigation of the Armenian Genocide, co-authored with Vahakn N. Dadrian. Bilgi University Press of Istanbul will release the Turkish edition later this year.
Prof. Akçam’s life and work have been featured in four critically acclaimed documentary films. A Wall of Silence (Humanist Broadcast Foundation, The Netherlands, 1997) premiered on Dutch national televison and was also screened in theaters across the United States and Canada. Armenian Genocide: 90 Years Later (Twin Cities Public Television/University of Minnesota, 2005) garnered a regional Emmy nomination and the Eric Sevareid Award for broadcast journalism. Armenian Genocide (Two Cats Productions, 2006) aired nationally on most PBS television stations. Screamers (Carla Garapedian, 2006) starring the Grammy-winning band System of a Down, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, the U.S. Congress, and the European and British Parliaments.
In 2007, the Armenian Bar Association presented the Hrant Dink Freedom Award to Taner Akçam as “a champion of historical truth about the Armenian Genocide and for his courageous defense of liberty and free speech.” He has also been honored by the Harvard University Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations as well as the Massachusetts State Legislature. In a mayoral proclamation of April 24, 2005, marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the city of Rochester, Minnesota, commended the work of Taner Akçam and other like-minded Turkish scholars as “a vital step toward truth, justice, and reconciliation.”
Before coming to Clark University, Taner Akçam was a visiting professor of history at the University of Minnesota, where he was affiliated with the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and a visiting scholar at the Armenian Research Center, University of Michigan–Dearborn. He serves on the editorial board of Genocide Studies & Prevention, the official journal of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.