The National Mind is a long-term interdisciplinary research project that investigates how nationalism and national belonging shape not only our sense of identity, but also the ways we think, feel, and relate to the world. Drawing on a wide range of philosophical traditions and scientific disciplines, from phenomenology and narratology to emotion research and social neuroscience, it examines nationalism as both a cognitive and affective framework.
The project is currently in its second phase, with a focus on how public education contributes to the formation of the national mind.
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The completed first stage of the project produced the book, The National Mind: Emotion, Cognition, and Nationalism. It presents an original theoretical and conceptual framework to study nationalism as a knowledge and feeling framework.
“The Formation of the National Mind“
The second and current stage focuses on the formation of the national mind. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the title, “Learning to Feel Like a Nation: Nationalism and Emotions in Turkish Schoolbooks.” Through an investigation of national(ist) narratives and relevant emotions in Turkish school books, it aims to explore how we produce ‘nationals’ out of children.
Deniz T. Kılınçoğlu is an interdisciplinary historian of ideas and narratives with an academic background in economics, history, and Middle Eastern Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University. He works at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (Germany).
The National Mind 