A graduate course organized by the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT), in collaboration with Middle East Technical University (METU), with the support of the Netherlands Consulate-General in Istanbul. The fifth edition of the Urban Heritage Lab Autumn Course will focus on rural heritage. APPLY BY 8 SEPTEMBER 2025, MONDAY!
Since 2021, the NIT Urban Heritage Lab has served as a platform for graduate students, early-career professionals, and heritage practitioners from Türkiye and the Netherlands to collaboratively engage with pressing issues in the conservation of cultural heritage. Initiated by the Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT), the Lab has explored themes ranging from industrial and water heritage to archaeological and port city heritage, each year culminating in fieldwork, intervention proposals, and open-access publication. Participants come from a wide range of disciplines.
In 2025, the Lab expands its geographic and conceptual scope with the theme: “Yazılıkaya Living Lab: Adaptive Futures for Rural Heritage”. This edition turns attention to the Phrygian Highlands (Mountainous Phrygia), a culturally and ecologically significant rural region of western Anatolia. Listed on UNESCO’s Tentative List since 2015 under the title of “Mountainous Phrygia,” the Highlands host a unique concentration of archaeological remains—including the monumental rock-cut façade of Yazılıkaya (Midas Monument)—alongside layers of vernacular architecture, living rural traditions, and landscapes shaped by millennia of human–nature interaction.
The course brings participants into direct interaction with these heritage layers through an intensive program of seminars, fieldwork, and collaborative study. It builds on a long-standing history of Dutch–Turkish cooperation in the area, notably the pioneering work of archaeologist Emilie Haspels, and addresses how cultural landscapes like Yazılıkaya can be safeguarded, reimagined, and activated in the face of climate change, depopulation, and shifting land use patterns. Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams to develop heritage-based strategies that promote sustainability, conservation, and revitalization.
During the course, 20 selected graduate students and junior professionals from universities and institutions in the Netherlands and Turkey will learn from international experts and will conduct a research-by-design assignment on the Phrygian Highlands. The course has a hybrid format, with a one-day online symposium, weekly online meetings, lectures by leading experts, and three days of in-person site visits in October. Applications are welcomed from any discipline, including archaeology, urban history and geography, architecture, city planning, landscape design, governance, conservation of cultural heritage, sociology, etc. Students and recent graduates not affiliated with Dutch or Turkish institutions can apply but will only be admitted if there are places available. The language of instruction is English.
There are no tuition fees. Fellowships that partially cover travel and accommodation expenses (upon successful completion) will be provided for graduate students as well as recent graduates who obtained their diploma after June 2024 and do not have a regular income. Please refer to the information kit for details about the fellowships.
The course runs from mid-October through mid-December 2025 and is set up in four parts:
PART A | Defining the Issues
10 October 2025 [17.00 - 19.00 / Istanbul time] Introductory Meeting
17 October 2025 [10.00 - 17.00 / Istanbul time] Online Symposium on Rural Heritage
PART B | Field Survey in Yazılıkaya and the Phrygian Highlands
23 - 24 - 25 October 2025
PART C & D | Developing a Proposal that addresses one or more of the Key Issues of Yazılıkaya and the Phrygian Highlands with Online Discussions & Online Public Presentations by Researchers and Professionals from the Netherlands and Türkiye
7 November [Public Guest Lecture] - 14 November [Internal Group Presentations] - 21 November [Public Guest Lecture] - 28 November [Internal Group Presentations] - 5 December [Public Guest Lecture + Internal Group Presentations] - 12 December [Final Group Presentations] 2025 [Fridays at 17.00 - 19.00 / Istanbul time; independent and group work, 4 - 8 hours per week]
Detailed information about the course is available in the Information Kit.
The application deadline is 8 SEPTEMBER 2025, Monday at 23.59 PM (Istanbul time)! You can find the application form here.
The results will be announced on 22 September 2025.
If you have any queries, please contact the course coordinator, Dr. Aysel Arslan.