Identity messages

Cultural entertainment writer/producer ANASTASIA ASHMAN launched this web enterprise in Fall 2009

expat+HAREM, the global niche is a group blog inspired by the aesthetic of cultural embrace, investigation and collaboration demonstrated in the popularly- and critically-acclaimed expatriate literature collection Tales from the Expat Harem: Foreign Women in Modern Turkey.

DETAILS: media coverage, academic uses, and awards for the anthology coedited with Jennifer Eaton Gökmen, compiling the work of 32 international Expat Harem writers. One editor’s story behind the book.

Common interest and experience now defines many of us far better than geography, nationality or even family.

expat+HAREM, the global niche embodies the hybrid Expat Harem concept while embracing intentional travelers and global citizens of all kinds.

You’re invited to contribute your perspective on the crossroads and dichotomies of our hybrid lives:

• modern existences in historic places
• deep-rooted traditions translated in mobile times
• limiting stereotypes revisited for wider meaning
• the expat mindset as it evolves from nationalism to globalism

More.

Expat Harem editors featured by Matt Lauer on NBC's Today Show

ANASTASIA M. ASHMAN: A writer/producer of multimedia entertainment projects, I aim to further the worldwide cultural conversation. Drawn to the nexus of women, culture, travel – and history, inspired by a Bryn Mawr archaeology degree — I try to illuminate personal dynamics, from one family to entire hemispheres.  I hope to pin-point and put into context truths about how identity is formed through culture, how it changes, and lives in our cultural thoughts and actions. My productions capitalize on eleven years of expatriatism (Rome, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul) and a decade in U.S. media and entertainment (NYC, LA).

produced Global Nomad Salon, Four Seasons Hotel, Istanbul

Expat Harem launched by media mogul Arzuhan Yalçındağ

In Istanbul, where I’ve lived with my Turkish husband since 2003, I am the producer of the Near East’s 1st Global Nomad Salon in association with Janera.com. The Economist calls this worldwide series of intellectual dinner parties “jetsetters with a conscience.” With fellow world citizen author Dr. Nassim Assefi, I’m developing an annual gathering of globally mobile progressives and in 2009 I became a founding member of TEDGlobal, the international conference of ideas in Oxford, UK.

A native of Berkeley, California, my writing has appeared in Asian Wall Street Journal, Village Voice, National Geographic Traveler and Cornucopia, the magazine for connoisseurs of Turkish culture.

with Turkish fashion designer Atıl Kutoğlu

I’m completing a forensic memoir of friendship, and developing the screen adaptation of my Expat Harem wedding tale “Like An Ottoman Princess”, as well as a documentary project about the soap opera life of a 6th century Byzantine princess who spurred an emperor to create an architectural wonder of the world.

produced speaking event for Turkish novelist Elif Shafak

I’m a social media enthusiast and on my top-10 Istanbul Twitter feed I share resources for women, writers, readers, travelers, expats, Turkophiles & culturati of all stripes, touching on my appreciation of the world of aesthetics, my pursuit of digital citizenry and my work to highlight the talent around me.

You’re invited to drop by my personal blog Furthering the Worldwide Cultural Conversation.

with US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer

expat+HAREM, the global niche synthesizes numerous strands of my life’s work, experience and interests and I look forward to sharing it with you, and the wider world.

Contact me by email or find me elsewhere on the web.