Feminist Debates on Ecological Destructions and Environmental Resistances in Turkey

The event is part of the Gender Awareness Week organized annually by the Center for Women's and Gender Research at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. 

MARCH 2, 2023

Place: BRELIA N-119

9.45-10.00       The Sound of Resistance I: Folk music

Mazlum Karataş (UiT, graduate student), Eduardo Henrique Scaramuzza – live performance (15 min).

10.00-10.30     Opening

Kjersti Fjørtoft (the director of the Centre for Women’s and Gender Research, UiT)

Welcome to feminist debates on ecological destructions and environmental resistances in Turkey

Özlem Özkan (peace academic and the member of KODA)

Solidarity academies in Turkey as the critical knowledge production environments

Aynur Özugurlu (visiting scholar at UiT, peace academic and the member of KODA)

Cross-border feminist collaboration for environmental justice

10.30-11.45     The right to the city, commons and gender  

Antep, Kırkayak Kültür (Ayşegül Tarla and Emine Doğan) – On earthquake destruction in Turkey, Northwest Syria and solidarity 

Bediz Yılmaz  (peace academic, the member of Kültürhane, Mersin) – Humble ecological struggles in the urban context: Fellowship of bokashi and women urban farmers

Merve Bedir (Hong Kong University, architect) – The remaining tables to be turned and the use of living knowledge

11.45   Discussion

12.30-13.30     Lunch 

13.30-14.15     Water as a feminist political issue and ecological interrelation of human and non-human natures 

Özlem Aslan (Kadir Has University, İstanbul) – Caring rivers: Approaching anti-hydropower struggles in Turkey from a place-based perspective

Ezel Ünal (Kocaeli University, and the member of KODA) – Women and stray dogs: Encounterings and care politics in the university campus

Yasemin Bodur (PhD student, UiT) – Gender in fieldwork of polar science

14.15   Discussion

14.45   Coffee Break 

15.00-15.30     Feminism and decolonising the environment/environmentalism

Dilşa Deniz (peace academic, Harvard Divinity School) – Feminized environment, and the State sexism in the form of environmental violence: the case of Dersim

Bürge Abiral (John Hopkins University) –  “Women who save seeds”: Essentialism and unequal distribution of care labor in the ecological food movement. 

15.30   Discussion

MARCH 3, 2023

Place: BRELIA N-119

10.00-10.30     Nature, extractivism and gender

Burcu Saka and Elif S. Mura (Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University) – Gender, social reproduction and activism against geothermal power plants: A life history study from Gülpınar, Çanakkale

Deniz Gümüşel (environmental engineer, activist, Muğla) – Fighting for forests and olive trees: Women’s activism against thermal power plants and mines in the case of Muğla

10.30   Discussion

10.50   Coffe Break

11.00-11.30     Grassroots economic practices and women’s labor  

İrem Soysal Al (Koç University, Istanbul) – Feminist inquiries on women's organizational experiences in ecological  production

Ecehan Balta (independent researcher, eco-feminist activist) – Rethinking of social reproduction through solidarity economies in Turkey

11.30   Discussion

12.00 –12.15   Closing: The Sound of Resistance II: Folk music

Mazlum Karataş (UİT, graduate student) Eduardo Henrique Scaramuzza – live performance (15 min).