The Memory Studies Association stands in solidarity

with memory scholar Ayşe Gül Altınay!

Ayşe Gül Altınay, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Center at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, is an important member of the Memory Studies community.

Earlier this week, she was sentenced to 25 months in prison. Professor Altınay is one of over 2200 Academics for Peace who signed a 2016 petition denouncing the violent state-sponsored persecution of Kurdish citizens of Turkey. In her fourth and final judicial hearing, she was charged with and convicted of “knowingly and willingly supporting a terrorist organization as a non-member”.

The Memory Studies Association stands in solidarity with Ayşe and all those who advocate for freedom of speech, human rights, the rule of law, and the peaceful resolution of conflict!

More information is available here: https://gender.ceu.edu/solidarity-professor-ayse-gul-altinay?fbclid=IwAR3lJAq12V64EOJi7GedE-l6zoTWfS6gXTmpn65TvZ8cJqaT4HWys6_xsOk

Read Ayşe Gül Altınay’s Second Statement in Court – May 21, 2019

http://bianet.org/bianet/ifade-ozgurlugu/208687-ayse-gul-altinay-in-esas-hakkinda-mutalaaya-iliskin-beyani

Every individual, every family living in this geography has suffered from past wars, migrations and experiences of violence. In terms of the cycle of violence that trauma studies alerts us to, we live in a challenging, vulnerable geography.

Yet, what we make of these past experiences of pain is up to us…

Are we going to turn our pain into more violence, hate, pain and injustice, or into steps that multiply life, beauty, love, peace and justice?

This is the main question that shapes my work and my life.

I firmly believe that we all have new steps we can take towards healing the traumas that have been transmitted from one generation to the other, and to break out of the cycles of violence that we are living through.

About Ayşe Gül Altınay

Ayşe Gül Altınay is Professor of Anthropology and Director of Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender). She received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology, with a Women’s Studies Certificate, from Duke University in 2001 and has served as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Women’s Studies (since 2009), Marie Jahoda Visiting Chair in International Gender Studies at Ruhr University-Bochum (2012), Visiting Faculty Fellow as part of the “Women Mobilizing Memory” Working Group at Columbia University Center for the Study of Social Difference (2014-2016) and Researcher in the CEU – Sabancı University Joint Academic Initiative on Gendered Memories of War and Political Violence (with Andrea Petö, 2011-2015).

At Sabancı University, she has contributed to the development of the Cultural Studies BA and MA Programs, the Gender Studies PhD program, Gender Forum and SU Gender, as well as the Sexual Harassment Policy Statement and Committee.

Altınay’s research and writing have focused on militarism, nationalism, violence, memory, gender, and sexuality. Among her books are The Myth of the Military-Nation: Militarism, Gender and Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); Ebru: Reflections on Cultural Diversity in Turkey (Metis, 2007, with Attila Durak); Violence Against Women in Turkey: A Nationwide Survey (Punto, 2008, with Yeşim Arat); The Grandchildren: The Hidden Legacy of Lost Armenians in Turkey (Transaction, 2014, with Fethiye Çetin, trans. Maureen Freely), Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories: Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence (Routledge, 2016, with Andrea Petö), and and the forthcoming volume Women Mobilizing Memory (Columbia University Press, 2019, co-edited with Maria Jose Contreras, Marianne Hirsch, Jean Howard, Banu Karaca and Alisa Solomon).

Her co-authored book with Yeşim Arat, Türkiye’de Kadına Yönelik Şiddet (Violence Against Women in Turkey) was awarded the 2008 PEN Duygu Asena Award.