Turkey Bogazici Protests

Description

Universities are considered critical spaces for fostering pluralism, democratic deliberation, and social mobility, and promote universal values in an attempt to foster civic life and participation. However, their academic autonomy is increasingly being threatened by neoliberal pressures in authoritarian and populist environments (Buckner, 2023). This ongoing research investigates the use of digital technologies in protests against the violation of academic autonomy and democracy at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey. The study is informed by theories of social movements and contentious politics, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for protests, and posthumanism, which allows us to consider people and material as mutually constituting and the boundaries of human and non-human actors as enacted rather than linear or stable (Barad, 2003). Through interviews with students, faculty, and alumni, the study explores the opportunities and challenges of using digital technologies in organizing and sustaining the Bogazici protests.

References Elizabeth Buckner. 2023. Moral authority and the academy under attack: the case of #Boğaziçidireniyor at Boğaziçi University. Globalisation, Societies and Education: 1-14. Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 28(3), 801-831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321