Talat Sait Halman

Talât Sait Halman, GBE (July 7, 1931 – December 5, 2014) was a famous Turkish poet, translator and cultural historian. He was the first Minister of Culture of Turkey. Since 1998, Professor Halman had been teaching at Bilkent University as dean of Faculty of Humanities and Letters

Professor Halman received his B.A. from Robert College in Istanbul. In the mid-1950s he received his master's degree from Columbia University in political science, international relations and international law.

During his long academic career, Professor Talat Sait Halman taught at Columbia University, Princeton University (1965–71) and (1972–80), the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. He taught at Bilkent University in Ankara from 1998, rising to become the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Letters. While there, he helped to found a program in Turkish languages and literature with a goal of introducing new critical approaches.

Honors include Columbia University's "Thornton Wilder Prize" for lifetime achievement as translator, an honorary doctorate from the Bosphorus University, a Rockefeller Fellowship in the Humanities, the UNESCO Medal, and "Knight Grand Cross, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire". ).

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