On 26 June 2013, activists, scholars, and laypersons gathered for a panel event held at the London School of Economics (LSE) that featured a stellar constellation of Turkey scholars and activists (see bios below). Entitled "What is Happening in Turkey? Reflections on an Uprising," the panel was organized by the Centre for Human Rights at LSE and sought to address a host of questions related to the context, dynamics, responses, and significances of the protest movements that have emerged throughout Turkey in recent weeks. The raison d`être of the event was rooted in the possability that the uprising in Turkey may constitute something new that requires us to rethink our understandings of democracy, politics, and law.
What follows the below listing of speakers and their bios is an audio recording of the event, which was made available by LSE Media.
The panel was introduced and moderated by Chetan Bhatt, Director of Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE, and featured the following speakers:
Özlem Köksal is a lecturer in the Film and Televison Department in Bilgi University in Istanbul. She received her doctorate from University of London, Birkbeck College with a dissertation examining the relation between collective memory, history, and cinema in Turkey. She is the editor of World Film Locations: Istanbul (Intellect 2012).
Zeynep Gambetti is Associate Professor of Political Theory at Bogazici University, Istanbul. She is particularly interested in theories of the public sphere, critical theory, ideology and discourse theories and in questions such as collective agency and ethics in the era of neoliberal globalization. She is currently exploring a theoretical framework through which to reflect upon recent radical movements, especially those that can create alternative spaces of existence.
Derya Bayir is author of the book Minorities and Nationalism in Turkish Law (2013). Her interests include international human rights and minority rights, law and religion, the Turkish legal system, and Ottoman pluralism. She obtained her doctorate from the Law Department at Queen Mary, and her thesis was recently awarded a prize by the Contemporary Turkish Studies Chair at LSE. Derya has litigated many cases before the European Court of Human Rights, including the prominent case of Güveç v. Turkey.
Ayça Çubukçu is Lecturer in Human Rights in the Centre for the Study of Human Rights and Department of Sociology at LSE. She writes on humanitarianism, liberalism and violence, transnational politics of solidarity, international law and colonialism, human rights and radical theory. She is also a co-editor the Turkey Page onJadaliyya.
The following video of the panel was produced to highlight some of the images and videos used during the presentations. Of particular relavence is Özlem Köksal`s presentation, which starts at the 00:06:30 mark and ends at the 00:21:40 mark.
What`s happening in Turkey? Reflections on an uprising 2013 #LSETurkey from armagan us on Vimeo.