PICT Aegean Summer School 2022

It was our great pleasure and privilege to hold the first ever PICT Aegean Summer School in the Turkish coastal town of Ayvalik from 20 to 26 June 2022. Six days of instruction and debate—two each on philosophy, literature, and creative writing—were capped off with a one-day boat trip around the idyllic bays of the region. The daily topics were as follows:

Philosophy

Philosophers Without Borders
PICT core faculty member Evrim Emir-Sayers invited us on a philosophical journey across regions and borders, moving from Plato to Ibn Arabi, from Nezami to Spinoza.

Michel Foucault’s Archaeology
PICT core faculty member Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte guided us on an in-depth exploration of the French philosopher’s Archaeology.

Literature

Writing, Theatre, and Nature
Anton Bonnici of the Paris Fringe Theatre Festival presented us with artistic attitudes towards nature from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Maura Baiocchi’s Ecoperformance.

The Wiles of Women in Literature
PICT core faculty member David Selim Sayers initiated us into the Middle Eastern literary genre of the “wiles of women” with stories from the 18th to the 20th century.

Creative Writing

Fiction Workshop
Amal Chatterjee from the University of Oxford led us in an intensive workshop on prose storytelling, regardless of whether we were just starting, developing, or filling out our stories.

Poetry Workshop
Stephanie Papa, Poetry Editor of Venti, created a space for us to encounter innovative poetry, experiment with poetic techniques, and bring our writing to new places.

Boat Trip

The trip on the seventh day took the form of an all-day boat tour with plenty of opportunities for swimming and admiring the nature of the region.