Political Friendships of New Migrants from Turkey
Wednesday, April 10, 2019 10:45 am – 12:15 pm EDT/GMT-4Bard College Berlin Lecture Hall, Platanenstr. 98a, Berlin - Pankow
Guest lecture by Özlem Savaş (Berlin Institute on Integration and Migration Research, Humboldt University)
On April 10, 2019 the course A Lexicon of Migration led by Agata Lisiak will welcome Dr. Özlem Savaş for a guest talk on "Political Friendships of New Migrants from Turkey."
Underpinned by an ongoing ethnographic research, this talk addresses affective collectivities and activisms in the context of new migration from Turkey. Due to the rising political repression and turmoil in Turkey, a growing number of people – mostly intellectuals, academics, journalists, artists, and students - are leaving the country and settling around the globe, especially in Berlin. How does migration feel? How do flows and repertoires of collective, public, and political feelings shape affinity, solidarity, and collaboration among diverse individuals and groups? Can political friendships create affective grounds of hope and new forms of activism? This talk focuses on political friendship in a migratory context and the possibilities it generates for collective imaginations, actions, and hope, by drawing on examples of digital media spaces, art projects and street activisms created by new migrants from Turkey.
Dr. Özlem Savaş is Einstein Guest Researcher at the Berlin Institute on Integration and Migration Research (BIM) at Humboldt University. She worked as Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Design at Bilkent University and held research fellowship positions at The Brandenburg Center for Media Studies (ZeM) and the University of Konstanz. Her research has focused on migration and diaspora, digital culture, everyday life, affective politics, and ethnography. She has published on diasporic aesthetics and politics of the everyday, visual culture in political Islam, and affective citizenship practices on social media. Currently, she is carrying out an engaged ethnographic research project, titled “Digital spaces of new migrants from Turkey: Collectivities, affinities, and affective politics.”
Date & time: Wednesday, April 10, 2019, from 10:45am
Venue: Bard College Berlin Lecture Hall
Platanenstr. 98a, Berlin - Pankow
The lecture is open to all those interested.
Photo credit: Ceren Saner
Email: [email protected]