Postimperial Memories, Gender and Trauma in the Anthropocene: A Change of Feminist Perspective on Turkey

Project Information

POGETA

Grant agreement ID: 101025604

DOI

10.3030/101025604

Project closed

EC signature date 15 April 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2023

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 157 355,52

EU contribution

€ 157 355,52

Coordinated by

SABANCI UNIVERSITESI
Türkiye

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - POGETA (Postimperial Memories, Gender and Trauma in the Anthropocene: A Change of Feminist Perspective on Turkey)

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

POGETA lies at the nexus of literary studies, trauma and memory studies, gender, and environmental humanities. Departing from the historical perspective on Middle Eastern environments, in particular on water and land, this project addresses the radical change in the representations of trauma and memory in contemporary Turkish literature and art in current our times – the Anthropocene era, the time during which humans have had a substantial impact on our planet.
Overall Objectives (a) mobilize a new taxonomy of trauma; new cultural and political imaginary in Turkish literature pertinent to the Anthropocene, (b) to make gender an explicit part of the conversation offer insights that feminism and queer theory can bring to the conversation in post-Ottoman context, (c) to expand the current debates around the Anthropocene by studying feminist and queer approaches to the Anthropocene and trauma (d) to acknowledges and transcend current environmental concerns and one that relates back to gender, race, ethnicity, and class in modern Turkey and its European diasporas.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work was conducted via five work packages (WPs). Please see the details in the Tech. Report, Part B.
In the final period, In WP5, the Fellow delivered eight public engagement activities including workshops, public lectures and webinars to popularize Anthropocene trauma, climate justice and gender in contemporary Turkish literature and art by utilizing the queer-feminist pedagogies and methodologies. The fellow created a series of radio production based on her research at Açık Radyo (Open Radio, a major public radio in Turkey). The fellow also worked with activists and academics who focus on urban ecology, sustainability, climate change and the impact of environmental disasters like wildfires, floods, and pollution on vulnerable groups, specifically women, migrant women, and LGBTI+s. The outcome of this collaboration was presented at the at the 12th Biennial European Society for Environmental History (ESEH) Conference at the University of Bern, Switzerland, in August 2023. Results of this MSCA are reported in: (1) forthcoming two scholarly papers on the significance of a radical transformation of cultural trauma and memory studies in a time of climate change, including the gendered and feminist analysis of this change (2) forthcoming papers on sustainable academia in Turkey and Europe. (3) papers about decolonizing the study of memory regarding the contexts of Middle East and North Africa.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

This fellowship pushed the frontiers of the humanities research that cuts across varied disciplines forward in numerous ways. Two invited talks on Climate Trauma, Gender and Contemporary Turkish Fiction in Turkey shed new light onto environmental and literary scholarship in Turkey in and beyond academia.The blogs, workshops and creative events conducted by the Fellow are promoting non-Western cultures and their study into memory studies as well as an analysis of Anthropocene memory beyond Euro/Anglo centric frameworks. This MSCA allowed the Fellow to develop agility and expertise with many different research methodologies and promote best practices to the larger communities and scholars. The fellow was invited to join the Editorial Board Member of Memory Studies Review Journal (BRILL). She will publish one article and a theme based special issue. The fellow was also invited to be the Management Committee Member (MC) and the grant writer coordinator of the COST Action CA20105: Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change (SlowMemo) (2021-2025). The fellow is actively participating in the Transformation of Environment Working group and transferring her prior MSCA expertise and knowledge to the current Cost Action. Going beyond the MSCA project, the fellow signed a book contract for her current book project entitled “Toward a Slow Witnessing in World Literature: Beyond the Nature-Culture Divide” with Routledge, Routledge Comparative Literature Series (expected to be published in late 2025).
Impact: In order to enhance the public outreach and impact of the Action and disseminate the research findings among advocacy groups and the general public, the fellow contacted civil society organizations and independent research institutes such as the SALT Research Institute, Orient Institute Istanbul, Memory Center, KIRAATHANE (the first independent literature house in Istanbul), Association for Monitoring, and Center for Spatial Justice (MAD) in Turkey to offer public lectures. To this end, she wrote popular articles based on her research for the Turkish online newspapers T24 and K24. The fellow also published essays and blog pieces on popular networks such as Network in Canadian History & Environment | Nouvelle initiative Canadienne en histoire de l'environnement. The researcher presented her scientific findings at the worldwide leading academic conferences including conventions of the Modern Language Association (US) the Annual American Comparative Literature Convention (US) European Society of Comparative Literature, the MESA Annual Meeting (US), ESEH Conference (Bern, Switzerland) and the Annual Memory Studies Association Conference (UK, Newcastle). Due to her scholarly. achievements in research and d in particular her expertise in her field, the researcher has been invited to join the editorial board of an acclaimed journal, "The Memory Studies Review" and has been invited to serve as peer-reviwer to the top ranking journals, such as PMLA, Comparative Literature Studies, C21 Journal of 21st Century Writings. The researcher widely contributed to the SU Gender's the Purple Certificate Program, which aims to contribute to the elimination of gender-based discrimination by raising awareness on gender equality among high school teachers. In this context, the researcher conducted significant work with high school teachers in Istanbul to promote gender awareness and gender equality in schools, classrooms, class activities, and educational materials. Within the scope of the Program, the researcher developed an educational material and class module on climate change and gender. Purple geared at students at faculties of education, civil society organizations and high school students. Toward the end of the completion of her fellowship, the researcher has been offered a full time assistant professor position at Kadir Has University, one of the top-ranking private research universities in Istanbul, Turkey. She has been also invited to offer part time classes at the department of Western Languages and Literatures at Bogazici University, a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Currently, she is working as an assistant professor of literature at Kadir Has University and offering part time courses at Bogazici University.

The Ethics of Witnessing in Pandemic Times Article BRILL

Response-able Memory Memory – Migration – Relationality