Çankırı Karatekin University History Department faculty member Dr. Assist. Prof. Dr. Ali Çapar attended the international conference titled "Disasters in and of the Middle East: Event, Place, Intensity" organized by Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies on March 28-30, 2025.
At the conference, Dr. Çapar presented “Understanding Earthquakes in 19th Century Antioch: Historical Patterns, Impacts, and Lessons for Future Preparedness”: Historical Patterns, Impacts, and Lessons for Future Preparedness". Within the scope of the presentation, the historical, social, economic, political and psychological effects of the earthquakes in Antakya in 1822 and 1872 were discussed in detail.
In his presentation at the conference, Dr. Çapar emphasized that history can be used as a laboratory not only to understand the past, but also to increase the awareness of the society towards disasters and to make preparations for the future. He also revealed the importance of creating micro-scale damage maps by integrating Ottoman-era documents with existing earthquake catalogs.
In the presentation, the transformations in the perception of disasters in the 1822 earthquake, when the disaster was seen as a divine punishment in the world of mentality of the period, and in the 1872 earthquake due to the development of the press and scientific thinking were evaluated comparatively. In addition, it was revealed that disasters can change the perception of power and control of societies and the effective roles they play in the transformation of social and political structures as historical actors.
This presentation by Prof. Dr. Ali Çapar at Harvard University demonstrates the contributions that the science of history can make to the field of disaster studies and shows that historical research can contribute to today`s disaster management practices.