Columbia Global Centers Istanbul invites you to “Bridging Academia and Activism through Gender Studies" with Assoc. Prof. Ayşe Gül Altınay, Director of the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence and Jean Howard, George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University. This event is co-sponsored by the Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies and Women Creating Change. 

In conversation with Hannah Arendt’s discussion of the “dark times,” this talk will present a critical reflection of the possibilities and challenges of doing feminism and gender studies in Turkey today. “The time span given us on earth” is shaped by deeply destructive forces, the consequences of which range from climate change to wars, from poverty and precarious living to racist and (hetero)sexist violence. Yet, it is also a time span in which we are witnessing major transformations, especially in relation to conventions on gender and sexuality. Contemporary Turkey marks a place where both the most destructive forces and the most transformative ones find strong expression. The talk will reflect on the challenges and possibilities of doing feminism and gender studies in Turkey today, with specific examples from the experiences of Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center, and ask some further questions: Where do we see the “illumination”? Why is it important, theoretically and politically, to “see” the illumination and expand on it? What are the possibilities offered by gender studies today to bridge academia and activism, and to enable a space of co-creation, co-resistance, solidarity and transformation? 

Full information on the event and speakers can be found here.