Dear all.

Below are updates and news about the previous weeks.

  1. Teacher Strand

Last week, an interdisciplinary event was organized and moderated at our school by our UGE instructor Deniz Kılavuz and ML instructor Irene Campari. The event, titled “At the Crossroads of the Mediterranean: Italian-Turkish Encounters in Trade, Space, and Everyday Life,” hosted Prof. Özge Samancı, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences, and Assoc. Prof. Vera Constantini of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The event explored the Mediterranean not as a boundary, but as a space of interaction, focusing on how Italian and Turkish contexts have shaped one another through trade, space, and everyday life. Below is a summary of the session and some photos.

Mediterranean as a Meeting Ground: Bridging Venice and Istanbul

Is it possible to imagine the Mediterranean not as a boundary, but as a space of encounter?
This question has been our inspiration for a recent interdisciplinary event that brought together history, language, and gastronomy to rethink the Mediterranean as a shared cultural landscape rather than a dividing line.

Organized and moderated by ScOLa instructors Deniz Kılavuz and Irene Campari, in collaboration with the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Le Cordon Bleu Istanbul (represented by Defne Tüysüzoğlu), the event opened with a thought-provoking panel exploring the Mediterranean’s layered interactions.

A Shared History Beyond Borders

The panel brought together two distinguished speakers: Vera Costantini from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and Özge Samancı, a professor in the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts program at Özyeğin University and a renowned historian of food culture.

Through their insights, the discussion traced the deep and often overlooked connections between Mediterranean societies, particularly Turkish and Italian, across historical, political, economic, cultural, and even etymological dimensions. Rather than presenting the Mediterranean as a site of division, the panel highlighted it as a dynamic zone of exchange, where identities, languages, and traditions continuously intersect and evolve.

Language, Etymology, and the Mediterranean Mindset

One of the most striking aspects of the discussion was the etymological layer of the Mediterranean experience. Words themselves carry traces of centuries of contact, borrowings, transformations, and shared meanings that reveal how languages, like cultures, are never isolated.

From culinary terminology to everyday expressions, Turkish and Italian, along with many other Mediterranean languages, reflect a history of interaction shaped by trade, migration, and coexistence. These linguistic echoes remind us that language learning is not merely about mastering structures, but about recognizing connections.

In this sense, adopting a plurilingual approach in language education becomes essential. Rather than treating languages as separate systems, this perspective encourages learners to draw on their full linguistic repertoire, noticing similarities, overlaps, and shared roots. Such awareness fosters not only deeper comprehension but also intercultural sensitivity. For this very reason, attributions or parallels to the native tongue while teaching the target language can actually turn into a life skill, contributing to empathy, openness, and the ability to navigate between cultures. This is also an indication of our roles as teachers going way beyond just language teaching, as language itself is connected to many other disciplines and has multiple layers.

Ultimately, the Mediterranean offers a powerful pedagogical model: just as its shores are interconnected, so too are the languages that have developed around it. Teaching with this awareness allows learners to experience language as a living, relational phenomenon, one that bridges rather than divides.

Taste as Memory: A Culinary Continuation

Following the panel, the conversation shifted from ideas to experience. Chef Francesco Di Marzio from Le Cordon Bleu Istanbul offered a live culinary demonstration of sarde in saor, a classic dish from Venetian cuisine.

This delicacy, featuring sardines fried in olive oil and paired with caramelized onions, vinegar, and subtle sweet notes, served as more than just a dish. It became a sensory narrative of the Mediterranean itself: layered, diverse, and deeply rooted in shared histories. Through taste and aroma, participants were reminded of how food preserves memory and connects cultures across time and geography.

A Gathering of Cultural Voices

The event welcomed many students from different departments and scholars from different disciplines. It has also welcomed distinguished guests, including Andrea Balletta, Acting Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Istanbul, and Eren Yücesan Cendey, one of Turkey’s leading literary translators known for bringing authors like Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino into Turkish. Their presence further enriched the event’s spirit of cultural dialogue and intellectual exchange.

Bringing Two Shores Together

With the participation of academics and students from diverse disciplines, this gathering became more than a panel or a workshop, it became a lived example of what the Mediterranean represents at its best. By revisiting its intertwined histories of trade, language, cuisine, and cultural interaction, the event succeeded in symbolically and intellectually bringing two shores together: Venice and Istanbul.

In doing so, it offered a compelling answer to its central question:

‘’Yes, the Mediterranean can indeed be imagined not as a border, but as a meeting ground.
Akdeniz, bir sınır değil, gerçekten bir buluşma alanı olarak düşünülebilir.
Il Mediterraneo può essere immaginato non come un confine, ma come uno spazio di incontro.’’

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Student Strand

The second round of the B2 Quiz Show was held last Wednesday with the participation of three groups: M25, M23, and M6. The three groups competed very closely, and in the end, M25 won the competition. Congratulations to the competing students and their instructors, Selda Gümüş and Merve Çetinkaya. Below are some photos from the event.