Shielding Hope, Killing Hope and the Limits of Belonging in Turkey

March 09, 2020

On March 4, 2020, Ayşe Parla, of Boston University, gave a talk detailing the unequal distribution of hope as a collective structure of feeling in relation to both the migrant condition and differential citizenship in Turkey. In this talk, Parla discussed the tension between ethnic privilege and economic precarity as experienced by ethnic Turkish migrants from Bulgaria for whom cultural and legal belonging has historically been promised. Turkish immigration policies have worked in lockstep with national aspirations for ethnic and religious conformity, offering this group of migrants in Turkey an advantage over others. At the same time, Parla asked what happens to the category of political hope when we simultaneously reckon with claims of inclusion based on ethnic kinship and the refusals of historically dispossessed citizens to participate in hopeful imaginations of a national future.

Welcome remarks and Q&A moderation were done by Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University

Sponsors: Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies & Department of Anthropology

Event and Audience
Ayse Parla Speaking
Ayse Parla Speaking
Lila Abu-Lughod Speaking
Lila Abu-Lughod Speaking