Tracing Reform Through Biography: Philipp Schwartz and the Academic Diaspora in Türkiye (1933-1945)

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 3:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Biographical Stories, Cultural Preservation, and Creative Research Practices in Education

Abstract

This paper offers a biographical study of Philipp Schwartz, a German-Jewish pathologist and founder of the Notgemeinschaft deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland (Emergency Association of German Scientists Abroad), focusing on his central role in Türkiye’s 1933 university reform. Drawing on his memoir Kader Birliği (Shared Fate), archival documents, and secondary literature, the study reconstructs Schwartz’s diasporic trajectory and institutional agency through biographical network analysis. By visualizing his connections with Turkish state officials and exiled German scholars, the paper demonstrates how Schwartz acted as a reform-oriented mediator in exile. The study also reflects on methodological strategies for integrating network visualization into biographical research, offering an interdisciplinary model for analyzing individual agency in historical educational reform.

Author

• Seyma Aksoy, Yıldız Technical University Türkiye