YAKUP BEKTAS, Ph.D.
Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology
Tokyo Institute of
Technology
2-12-1-W9-64
O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8554 Japan
Tel/Fax: +81-(0)3-5734-2375
Email: bektasy@me.titech.ac.jp
Office: West Bldg 9, Room 406A
Yakup Bektas earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Kent in 1995 and 1991 respectively.
Prior to joining the Tokyo Institute of Technology in January 2004, where he
was a postdoctoral research fellow (of Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science) from 1996 to 1998, Bektas held post-doctoral research positions at the
Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of American History), and Duke
University (New Beginnings Program and History Department). At Duke he also
taught courses in the history of technology, and technology and the
environment.
Bektas’ principal research and teaching interests are in the
history of technology, particularly in the introduction of Western
technological innovations to the non-Western world in the nineteenth century;
communications–information- technologies (esp. telegraph), railways; technology
and the environment. His research topics include British and American
techno-cultural encounters with the Ottoman Empire (and Meiji Japan) in the
19th century; the role of technological innovations and artifacts in promoting
cross-cultural exchange; the cultural history of the electric telegraph and
railways; technology’s interactions with the natural environment and
landscapes; the ideas of nature, progress, improvement, modernity, and
determinism in narrating technological change; and the ideas of “East” and
“West.”
At the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Bektas contributes to
research and teaching. His ongoing projects include a booklet for SHOT/AHA series.
He is currently a Contributing Editor to Technology and Culture.
Selected Publications
1)
“The
German-Turk Miracle,” Essay Review, Technology and Culture 48
(October 2007): 840-44.
2)
Morse’s Most Cherished Honor: The Nishan-i Iftihar of the Ottoman
Empire” in Mine Haydaroglu, ed., The Story of
Communications Past to Future, (Jan 2007, YKY, Istanbul): 93-107.
3)
“Visions of Vanishing Japan,” ICON
-World Monuments- (Summer 2004): 18-23.
4)
“Displaying
the American Genius: The Electromagnetic Telegraph in the Wider World,” British Journal for the History of Science
34 (June 2001): 199-232.
5)
“The
Sultan’s Messenger: Cultural Constructions of Ottoman Telegraphy 1847-1880,”
Technology and Culture 41 (October 2000): 669-696.
Forthcoming:
- “Railroads
in the Ottoman Empire,” in Gabor Agoston and
Bruce Masters, eds., Encyclopedia
of the Ottoman Empire (Facts on File, 2008):
- “The
Telegraph in the Ottoman Empire,” in Gabor Agoston
and Bruce Masters, eds., Encyclopedia
of the Ottoman Empire (Facts on File, 2008)
- “That
New and Dangerous Magic’: the Telegraph and Communication in the Crimean
War,” in Alexandre Toumarkine,
ed., ... (Isis, Istanbul, 2008)
Book Reviews
1. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Science, Technology and Learning
in the Ottoman Empire (Ashgate, 2004), British
Journal for History of Science 39 (June 2006): 287-88.
2. Gabor
Ágoston, Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the
Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University, 2005), Technology and Culture 47
(April 2006): 405-407.
3. Jorma
Ahvenainen, The European Cable Companies in
South America before the First World War (Helsinki, 2004), Technology
and Culture 46 (October 2005): 828-830.
4. Jonathan
S. McMurray, Distant Ties: Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and the Construction
of the Baghdad Railway (Praeger, 2001)
Technology and Culture 45 (October 2004): 872-74.
5. Wendy
M. K. Shaw, Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the
Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (University of California,
2003), Technology and Culture 45 (July 2004): 666-686.
6. Marcia
Yonemoto, Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space,
Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603-1868 (University of
California, 2003) Technology and Culture 45 (January 2004): 175-6.
8. John B. Dwyer, To
Wire the World: Perry M. Collins and the North Pacific Telegraph Expedition (Praeger, 2001), Technology
and Culture 43 (January 2002): 189-191.