Women's archives appear to have been largely disregarded until the last couple of decades. Most countries lack well-documented archives, and the question of methodology has become a common concern and ever more significant for researchers. Aiming to contribute to the growing efforts of developing women's archives, the present book brings together the works of numerous researchers from various disciplines. The researchers contributed to this volume in order to share information and experiences about the problems of sources and archives in women's studies. The articles in the book not only analyse the problems encountered by researchers in the field of women's studies, but also examine perceptions of women in collective memories. The book comprises five parts: Women's Archives and Women's Libraries; Art, Literature and Journal; Letters and Petitions; Oral History; and Cinema. All the articles present fresh ideas on the collective memory, perceptions, experiences, and the collection of documents on women. The aim is to present discussions about the works of oral, written, and visual culture that constitute the collective memory and to form accessible archives on an international level, thereby opening up new areas of research on this subject.
About the Author: D. Fatma Ture is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Ankara University, Turkey. She received her PhD from the Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Bogazici University, and her MA from the Department of Turkish Literature and Language at the same university. Her dissertation title is Images of Istanbul Women in the 1920s. Her publications include Jane Eyre and Muhazarat, Marmara Universitesi Turkluk Arastirmalari Dergisi, 1991; Sexual Politics and Female Narrative, Sozden Yaziya: Edebiyat Incelemeleri, 1994; Women's Manners in History, Sanat Dunyamiz 63, 1996; Obscenity in Popular Literature, Album 1, 1997; An a la Franca Woman, Toplumsal Tarih (Special Issue), 1997; Obscenity out of Freedom, Tarih ve Toplum (Special Issue), 1999; Secret History, Tarih ve Toplum (Secial Issue), 2001; and Erotic Popular Literature in the Second Constitution Era, Eleftherotypia, 2006. Birsen Talay Kesoglu graduated from Bogazici University, Turkey, with a BA in Philosophy. She earned her MA in History at Bogazici University and received her PhD from the Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History at the same university with a dissertation entitled Socialist Women's Organisations in Turkey 1975-1980. She was the editor-in-chief of the journal Tarih ve Toplum (History and Society) between the years 1998-2003 and worked for Iletisim Publishers as an editor of books on historical and political research and memoirs. Her articles have appeared in several journals and books. Her published works are on the late Ottoman period, Turkish modern history, women's history, women's movements, oral history, women's studies and gender. Her latest book Turk Kadini 1918-1919 (Turkish Woman, 1918-1919) was published in 2010 October by the Women's Library and Information Centre Foundation, Istanbul. She has been teaching at Kadir Has University, Istanbul since 2004.