About

Board of Governors

The Board of Governors has full responsibility for the Institute of Turkish Studies' policies and programs. The Board is composed of distinguished scholars in the field of Turkish Studies and prominent individuals from the private and public sectors in the United States, including former U.S. ambassadors. The Board of Governors meets on a regular basis to review and evaluate the Institute's activities and makes all decisions for its grant program.

	Adnan Akant Fischer, Francis, Trees and Watts, Inc. Adnan Akant is Chief Investment Officer for Currencies at FFTW, an institutional global bond management firm with over $50 billion in assets. Prior to joining FFTW in 1984, Akant spent six years managing the World Bank's liquidity portfolio and advising the Treasurer on the Bank's multi-currency borrowing program. Akant holds Ph.D., SB, SM and Engineering Degrees from MIT in electrical engineering and computer science (1972-1977). He also holds an SM in finance from the MIT Sloan School (1978). Adnan Akant is Co-Head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank's FX Committee for the Buy-Side Group. He is also a member of the New York Academy of Science and Sigma Xi.
	Amb. Namık Tan Honorary Chairman of the Board of Governors Turkey's Ambassador to the United States Ambassador Namık Tan was appointed Ambassador of Turkey to the United States in February 2010. Prior to this appointment, Ambassador Tan was Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for bilateral political affairs and public diplomacy. He was previously Ambassador of Turkey to Israel from 2007-2009. Ambassador Tan joined the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1982. After working in the Department of Maritime Affairs, he was posted to Moscow as Second Secretary from 1984-1987. He then spent two years as First Secretary in Abu Dhabi. After returning to Turkey, Mr. Tan served as the Deputy Chief of Cabinet to the Turkish President until 1991. He was later assigned to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, where he served as Counselor from 1991-1995 and First Counselor from 1997-2001. Between these assignments, Mr. Tan served as Chief of Cabinet to the Turkish Foreign Minister. Upon his return to Turkey in 2001, he first served as Head of the Department for the Americas, and was subsequently named Head of the Information Department in 2002. He went on to serve as the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2004-2007.
	Amb. Ross Wilson (retired) Chairman of the Board Governors Atlantic Council Ross Wilson is Director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council of the United States and a Lecturer in International Affairs at George Washington University. In December 2008, he completed nearly three decades in the U.S. Foreign Service, including six years as American ambassador to Turkey in 2005-2008 and to Azerbaijan in 2000-2003. Elsewhere overseas, he served at the U.S. embassies in Moscow and Prague and was American Consul General in Melbourne, Australia. In Washington, Ambassador Wilson served as Chief of Staff for Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick in 2005. He was Chief U.S. Negotiator for the Free Trade Area of the Americas while on detail to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2003-2005. In 1997-2000, Ambassador Wilson served as Principal Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large and Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States (of the former Soviet Union). He was Deputy Executive Secretary of the State Department in 1992-1994, managing the policy process for Secretaries of State Lawrence Eagleburger and Warren Christopher, and before that was an aide to State Department Counselor and Undersecretary Zoellick. Early in his career, Ambassador Wilson served in the State Department's offices dealing with the Soviet Union and Egypt. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ambassador Wilson received a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota and master's degrees from Columbia University and the U.S. National War College. While in the diplomatic service, he won the President's Meritorious Service Award, as well as numerous Department of State awards and honors. He serves as chairman of the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies and is a member of the Academy of American Diplomacy, the American Foreign Service Association, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR) and the Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs. He is married to Margo Squire, who is a career diplomat with the State Department. They have two sons.
	Prof. David Cuthell Columbia University David Cuthell was the Executive Director of The Institute of Turkish Studies and a visiting Professor at Georgetown University between 2005-2011. He is currently a visiting professor at Columbia University. Cutehell previously directed the Turkish, Middle East and Central Asian Studies at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken New Jersey. Prof.Cuthell has a Ph.D. in history from Columbia as well as an earlier MA in Political Economy and an MBA in International Finance. Prior to returning to Columbia University in 1998 for his doctorate, Prof. Cuthell worked in the capital markets for twenty years in New York and London for Citibank and Morgan Stanley and later was a Managing Director of fixed income trading at Mabon Securities. His research interests include the social and demographic transformation of the 19th century Ottoman Empire as well as the impact of technology on Ottoman and modern Turkish society. He recently contributed to The Creation of Iraq: 1914-1922 (Columbia Press 2004).
	Prof. Walter Denny University of Massachusetts Walter B. Denny joined the faculty of the UM/A Art History Program in 1970. His primary field of teaching and research is the art and architecture of the Islamic world, in particular the artistic traditions of the Ottoman Turks, Islamic carpets and textiles, Islamic imagery in European art, and issues of economics and patronage in Islamic art. His recent publications include the books Gardens of Paradise: Ottoman Turkish Tiles of the 15th-17th Centuries (İstanbul, 1998); Masterpieces of Anatolian Carpets from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, İstanbul (Bern, 2001); Ipek: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets (London, 2002); and The Classical Tradition in Anatolian Carpets (Washington D.C., 2002). Iznik: La Céramique Turque et l'art Ottoman appeared in 2004 in Paris (Editions Citadelles et Mazenod), followed by English (Thames & Hudson) and German (Hirmer) versions in 2005. Denny has served as a Trustee of The Textile Museum (Washington) and was for three decades Honorary Curator of Carpets and Textiles at the Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge. In addition to his ITS board membership, Denny serves as Charles Grant Ellis Research Fellow in Oriental Carpets at The Textile Museum. He is active as a lecturer and as a consultant to museums and other institutions in the United States and abroad. He is married to Alice Robbins, a professional musician (Baroque cello and viola da gamba) who is also an instructor in the Five College Early Music Program, and is the father of Matthew, born in 1988. Denny performs as a tenor soloist and chorister with various ensembles, including Da Camera Singers and Arcadia Players, and serves on the Board of Directors of Arcadia Players.
	Prof. Kemal Derviş Brookings Institution Kemal Derviş is vice president and director of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution and focuses on global economics, emerging markets, development and international institutions. Kemal Derviş was the head of the United Nations Development Program, the UN's global development network, from August 2005 to February 28, 2009. He was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programs and departments working on development issues at the country level. From March 2001 to August 2002, Kemal Derviş was Minister for Economic Affairs and the Treasury, without party affiliation, of the Republic of Turkey. He was responsible for Turkey's recovery program after the devastating financial crisis that hit the country in February 2001. In August of 2002, after the crisis was overcome, he resigned from his Ministerial post, joined the Republican People's Party and was elected to Parliament in November of the same year. Kemal Derviş has published many articles in academic journals as well as current affairs publications on topics ranging from mathematical models of growth and social mobility and quantitative models of trade, to European enlargement and transatlantic relations (in English, Turkish, French and German - he is fluent in all four languages). A book entitled General Equilibrium Models for Development Policy, which he co-authored, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1982 and became a widely used textbook in development economics in the 1980s. In cooperation with the Center for Global Development, he has published a new book entitled A Better Globalization (Brookings Press, March 2005) which deals with global development issues and international institutional reform.
	Prof. Edward J. Erickson Treasurer Marine Corps University Edward Erickson born in Norwich, New York, USA. After military service as an infantry non-commissioned officer, he was commissioned in the Field Artillery in 1975. During his career, Erickson served with the 509th Airborne Infantry Battalion, the 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 24th Infantry Division, the 528th Field Artillery Group, and the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade. During the Persian Gulf War, he served as the Operations Officer (S3) of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery in the 3rd Armored Division at the Battle of Wadi Al Batin. In the latter phase of his career, he served in NATO assignments in Izmir, Turkey and in Naples, Italy as a Foreign area officer specializing in Turkey and the Middle East. In 1995 he was assigned to the NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he served as a Military Assistant to Commander, Implementation Force (IFOR) (COMIFOR). Erickson retired in October 1997 to teach world history at Norwich High School, but was recalled to active duty in March 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom and was assigned as the Political Advisor to Major General Ray Odierno, 4th Infantry Division. After six months in Tikrit, Iraq, Erickson returned to civilian life. During his military service Erickson won many awards, including the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster. In 2005 he received his Ph.D. in history at the University of Leeds in United Kingdom. From 2007-2008, Erickson was professor of political science in the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, Baghdad, Iraq. Erickson is an associate professor of military history and teaches Operational Art at the Command and Staff College, Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
	Prof. Carol Lancaster Georgetown University Carol Lancaster has been the Dean of the School of Foreign Service since April 2010 after serving as Interim Dean beginning in 2009. Lancaster has published numerous books and articles on the politics of foreign aid, the politics of development, and development in Africa including Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics (University of Chicago Press). Her most recent book is George Bush's Foreign Aid: Transformation or Chaos?, published by the Center for Global Development, Washington, D.C., 2008. She is a professor of politics and was previously the Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. In addition to her membership of the ITS board of governors, Dean Lancaster also serves on the board of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Vital Voices and the Society for International Development and is a trustee of the American University of Afghanistan and Nyumbani. She is a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development and currently co-editing a book on the politics of development.
	Prof. Heath Lowry Princeton University Since 1993 Heath W. Lowry has been the AtatÜrk Professor of Ottoman & Modern Turkish Studies at Princeton University. Prior to that time he was a founding member of the History Department at the Bosphorus University in İstanbul, Turkey (1973-1980), and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection in Washington, D.C. (1980-1983). Between 1983 and 1993 he established and directed the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington, D.C. Currently, together with his position at Princeton University, he serves as an Advisor to the Bahçeşehir University Board of Trustees in İstanbul, Turkey.
	Prof. Justin A. McCarthy University of Louisville Justin A. McCarthy, who holds the appointment of Distinguished University Scholar, arrived at University of Louisville in 1978 immediately after receiving his Ph.D. from U.C.L.A. He is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar of the Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey and the Middle East. He has published eleven books, most recently The Armenian Rebellion at Van (2006). In 1996 University of Louisville recognized him with the Award for Outstanding Scholarship, Research, and Creative Activity.
	Prof. Sinan Ciddi Executive Director Sinan Ciddi was appointed as the fourth Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies, succeeding David C. Cuthell at the end of August 2011. Ciddi was born in Turkey and educated in the United Kingdom, where he gained his Ph.D. in Political Science from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in June 2007. He was previously an instructor at Sabancı University between 2004-2008 and completed his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the same institution between 2007-2008. He recently published a book titled Kemalism in Turkish Politics: The Republican People's Party: Secularism and Nationalism (Routledge, January 2009) focusing on the electoral weakness of the Republican People's Party. Between 2008-2011, he established the Turkish Studies program at the University of Florida's Center for European Studies.
	Prof. Jenny White Boston University Jenny White is a writer and a social anthropologist. Her first novel, The Sultan's Seal, was published in 2006. It was translated into fourteen languages and is available as a paperback and audiobook. Booklist has named it one of the top ten first novels of 2006 and one of the top ten historical novels of 2006. It was shortlisted for the 2006 Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award. The sequel, The Abyssinian Proof, was published in February 2008 (W.W. Norton) and a third Kamil Pasha novel, The Winter Thief, in 2010. Jenny White was born in southern Germany and emigrated with her mother to the United States at the age of seven. She studied at Lehman College in the Bronx, part of the City University of New York and later received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1991. Jenny White now teaches social anthropology at Boston University as a tenured associate professor. She has published two scholarly books on contemporary Turkey. Money Makes Us Relatives, a description of women's labor in urban Turkey in the 1980s, was published in 1994. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics was published in 2002. It explains the rise of Islamic politics in Turkey in the 1990s and won the 2003 Douglass Prize for best book in Europeanist anthropology. Jenny White lives in the Boston area.

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