Theses supervised by Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Nursem Keskin Aksay
11 theses · Ibn Haldun University
Müslüman kadınların deneyimlerinde mekânın ve duyguların rolü: Hanımlar İlim ve Kültür Derneği (HİKDE)
This thesis examines how "Muslim women" in Hanımlar İlim ve Kültür Derneği (HİKDE), which is regarded as a pioneer association in the process of Muslim women's activities in Turkey, define and give meaning to their experiences through the debates of Islamism and the public sphere in Turkey. It is revealed that although their main motivation and reference sources are Islam, women reject "Islamist" discourse attributed to them for the reason they find it political and also believe that their activities have meaning beyond any discourse, hence define themselves as just "Muslim women". This thesis also reveals the meaning and role of space and emotions in the activities of women. It is argued that for Muslim women, being in action which is regarded as a necessity in Islam, requires a space understanding beyond public/private dichotomy. While space is seen as a tool for carrying out their actions, at the same time as a historical madrasa building it corresponds to a representational space where Islamic practices are fulfilled and the understanding of waqf is maintained. In addition, it is claimed that this association is the embodiment form of women's emotions that encompass their actions and play a crucial role together with affective atmosphere that is created through certain objects and subjects. For this thesis, a fieldwork is conducted including in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observations. Moreover, the content analysis of the Şadırvan Journal which was published in the first years of the association, and the analysis of other written and visual materials are included.
The context of civil society: Analyzing the Muslim women's participation in the institutionalization process in Turkey
The aim of this thesis is to examine the motivations of Muslim women who established institutions with the definitions of association and foundation in the 1970s in the context of their feelings and beliefs. Many institutions currently defined as civil society organizations have connections with these institutions established by Muslim women in the 1970s. In my study, I argue that both the institutions defined as civil society organizations and those established as associations and foundations in the past are open to different interpretations. It is seen that when the meaning that women attribute to their activities and the institutions they establish is analyzed. When the traces of this interpretation are followed, it is seen that there are similar motivations with the motivation of institutions in the past. The meanings attributed to institutionalization in the 70s can also be attributed to the institutions engaged in activities with the definition of civil society organizations today. Women's motivations are also related to historical experiences, political environment, and vakıf understanding in the past. This motivation enabled women to do activities towards their goals through their emotions. I used multiple data collection methods for the study through in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnography, and participant observation. In addition, I analyzed written and visual materials, publications and web resources. Fieldwork was carried out in Istanbul. All these data, based on historical trace version and discourse analysis in the field, reveal that similar religious beliefs in Muslim women produce similar emotionality. In this context, veiling, which emerged as the embodiment of religious belief, produced a collective emotional spirit in women and gathered women around a common purpose in the institutionalization process. Due to the state's prohibitions on covering establishment of educational institutions is one of the important stages of institutionalization. Keywords: Anthropology of emotion, civil society, Muslim women, Turkey
Digital community, fan spaces and gendered emotions: An analysis on Korean pop music (K-POP) fandom in Turkey
This study aims to analyze the experiences of Korean Pop music (K-Pop) fans in Turkey. In recent years, K-Pop has been discussed together with gender norms in the context of Turkey, claiming that K-Pop is a danger for family structure and existing gender codes. This study intends to investigate both on this discourse, which can be named as anti K-Pop discourse; and on fan experience, which mainly exist on digital space, to be able to see how gender is understood. With this aim, I have used multiple data collection techniques such as; in-depth interviews and focus groups with fans, ethnography, digital ethnography, discourse analysis and participant observation. According to the data obtained, the concept of gender is highly related with space and emotions as well as popular culture representations. Analyses of the interviews revealed that especially the concept of masculinity can be understood more with its attachments to negative emotions and oppressing/threatening behaviors, while femininity has attachments like positive emotions and softer behaviors. This study shows that existing definitions on gender representations are too limiting and oppressive especially when expressing various emotions both for men and women. In this context, different gender representations shown by K-Pop idols, unlike the claims of anti K-Pop discourses, raised interest not because of their 'feminine' appearances but because of their softer behaviors and freedom in emotional expressions which are socially constructed as femininity. Together with this, the study shows that these 'more feminine' masculinity representations are perceived as more secure and reliable because of their distance from hegemonic masculinity representations. While pointing to the problems of existing definitions for gender norms, this study reveals the impact of emotional connection and digital space on understanding gender norms. Keywords: popular culture, culture industry, gender, digital space, emotions
Calls to prayer and sounds of birds: The production of space and place-making practices in Erenköy-Konya
"There shall be heard only calls to prayer and sounds of birds." This is how Tahir Büyükkörükçü, one of its founders, describes Erenköy. This phrase tells the story of the Erenköy neighbourhood of Konya in a very meaningful way. Erenköy was built in 1969 when a group of people came together with the idea of living Islam better under the leadership of Tahir Büyükkörükçü. Single-storey houses designed by their users, lush and wide gardens, garden walls exceeding two meters, numerous entrances, cedar pines along the street and several things belonging to the neighbourhood bear traces of fifty years ago. This thesis sets out by examining the social solidarity and process that brought the residents of Erenköy together and questions their basic motivation to build a living space. It examines architectural structures, interior designs, gardens and objects as the embodied forms of this motivation. In addition, it focuses on those who built them, the feelings, dreams, disappointments, conflicts, discourses, and practices. It draws attention to the founding role of feelings e.g. love, responsibility, voluntariness, negotiation, and comfort. By opposing the argument that space consists only of physical structures, it deciphers the indirect but powerful relationship of space with faith. Therefore, in addition to space theories, it appeals to affect theory, new ontology, Islamic sciences, and Sufism. While examining the whole process, it does not remove Erenköy context from current discussions, also analyzes strategies and tactics, current life practices, the role of capital, spatial transformation, and the latest trends. In sum, this thesis tells the process of a grape field in 1969 becoming one of the most elegant districts of Konya today. Although it was established years ago, it argues that the production and the construction of space in Erenköy continues.
Memory and emotions in the identity construction: The Algerian descendants in Adana
This thesis examines the identity formation of Algerian descendants in Adana and Kozan based on the narratives of three different generations to understand how they define and give meaning to their identity and belonging in Turkey. The research aims to explain what it means to be Algerian descendants in Turkey and live between two cultures and analyze how diasporic identity formed. For this, I conducted 20 recorded interviews, attended different community gatherings, and engaged in participant observation. The study considers both individual and collective identity theories to investigate identity formation in a diaspora. The findings suggest that interlocutors' identity construction was influenced by nostalgia and collective memory transmitted through generations. Moreover, the interlocutors' emotional connection to Algeria led to creating a utopian nostalgic version of it through which they sustain their ethnic identity. Observation in the field suggests that Algerian descendants have solid emotional ties to the homeland through their religious affiliation, culture, symbols, and customs, but this belonging changes according to generation. The study shows that generations experienced different political contexts in Turkey regarding otherizing and discrimination of minorities, leading them to position and negotiate their identity strategically. Interlocutors also negotiate their belonging to Turkey through narratives, symbols, and "usable" memories that legitimize their presence. Thus, this research shows the emergence of a hybrid identity as a strategy of integration and belonging. It is also argued that hybrid identities emerge, nurture, and are negotiated in diasporic spaces. In this sense, this study contributes to the "third-space" (Bhabha 1994)conceptualization by exploring the diasporic space through memory and emotion repertoires. This research is the first to focus on the identity formation of Algerian descendants in Adana and Kozan; it contributes in that sense to the literature on Algerian diaspora identity but also to the contemporary Turkish and Algerian historiography. Keywords: Belonging, Hybridity, Identity, Memory, Nostalgia, Third-space.
The lived experience of displaced Syrian men in Istanbul
While there are numerous studies regarding the impact of displacement on the psycho-social and cultural impact of displacement, there is a paucity of understanding regarding how young, refugee males view their perceptions of masculinity as it relates to their social responsibilities and roles compared to pre-displacement conditions. This ethnographic study seeks to understand this dynamic, shedding light on the lived experience of refugee males through understanding how they view themselves considering a lack of context about their "conventional keystones of manhood". I conducted 16 semi-structured interviews through a snowball sampling framework within the location of Istanbul Turkey. Several fieldwork findings were analyzed through thematic analysis. This analysis found that the public discourse in Turkey regarding displaced Syrian men has a significant impact on their perceptions of their own masculinity. Syrian men are often disparaged in Turkish press, and the position of Syrians in Turkey is often questioned politically and leads to feelings of impermanence and vulnerability. The impacts of this impermanence are compounded by disruptions to what my participants had suggested as 'traditional socio-familial role' occupied by men in Syria. According to my participants, without a nuclear family to support, difficulty findings suitable spouses, and the removal of traditional safety and security provided by their close-knit home communities, men have been forced to reformulate their perceptions of masculinity. Displacement has also given more freedom, choice, and responsibility to women, challenging traditional gender roles within Syrian society. This has further forced men to challenge their notions of masculinity. This thesis concludes by suggesting that further research be conducted into the impact that this shift will have on themselves and future generations and their opportunities to build futures for themselves and their families.
Calls to prayer and sounds of birds: The production of space and place-making practices in Erenköy-Konya
"There shall be heard only calls to prayer and sounds of birds." This is how Tahir Büyükkörükçü, one of its founders, describes Erenköy. This phrase tells the story of the Erenköy neighbourhood of Konya in a very meaningful way. Erenköy was built in 1969 when a group of people came together with the idea of living Islam better under the leadership of Tahir Büyükkörükçü. Single-storey houses designed by their users, lush and wide gardens, garden walls exceeding two meters, numerous entrances, cedar pines along the street and several things belonging to the neighbourhood bear traces of fifty years ago. This thesis sets out by examining the social solidarity and process that brought the residents of Erenköy together and questions their basic motivation to build a living space. It examines architectural structures, interior designs, gardens and objects as the embodied forms of this motivation. In addition, it focuses on those who built them, the feelings, dreams, disappointments, conflicts, discourses, and practices. It draws attention to the founding role of feelings e.g. love, responsibility, voluntariness, negotiation, and comfort. By opposing the argument that space consists only of physical structures, it deciphers the indirect but powerful relationship of space with faith. Therefore, in addition to space theories, it appeals to affect theory, new ontology, Islamic sciences, and Sufism. While examining the whole process, it does not remove Erenköy context from current discussions, also analyzes strategies and tactics, current life practices, the role of capital, spatial transformation, and the latest trends. In sum, this thesis tells the process of a grape field in 1969 becoming one of the most elegant districts of Konya today. Although it was established years ago, it argues that the production and the construction of space in Erenköy continues.
"Benim yerimde olsaydın (Namazı) bir kadın olarak mı kılardın bir erkek olarak mı?" transseksüel bireylerin transseksüel olma deneyimleri ile dini deneyimleri arasındaki ilişki
Transseksüellik, kendi içinde birçok tartışmayı barındırması sebebiyle Türkiye'de üzerinde çok konuşulmayan araştırma alanlarındandır. Son günlerde tüm dünyadan farklı görüşlerle tartışılan ve sorunsallaştırılan bu konu Türkiye'de birçok kesimden insanı etkilemesine rağmen görmezden gelindiğini söylemek yanlış olmaz. Alanda yapılan çalışmaların birçoğu belli bir bakış açısıyla gerçekleştirilmektedir. Özellikle farklı dini, kültürel ve ahlaki değerlere sahip toplumlardaki bakış açıları ve yaklaşımlar, bununla birlikte özneler ve deneyimler göz ardı edilmektedir. Bu alandaki toplumsal çalışmalara, çatışmalara ve çözüm önerilerine Türkiye'nin bağlamını da göz önünde bulundurarak katkı sağlamak amacıyla transseksüel bireylerin transseksüel olma deneyimleri ile dini deneyimleri arasındaki ilişkinin araştırılması önem arz etmektedir. Bu araştırmanın saha çalışması kendisini ya da deneyimini transseksüel olarak tanımlayan bireyler ile yarı yapılandırılmış derinlemesine mülakat, odak grup görüşmeleri ve katılımcı gözlem yöntemleri kullanılarak yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda Müslüman transseksüellerin sosyal bir gerçeklik olarak var oldukları, Türkiye'nin sosyo-kültürel yapısı sebebiyle Müslüman oldukları için bazı LGBTİQ+'lar tarafından, transseksüel oldukları için de bazı muhafazakar Müslümanlar tarafından görünmez kılındıkları bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır. Bununla birlikte bireylerin kültürel ve dini bağlamları sebebiyle kendi kimliklerini dini bir çerçeveden kurgulamaktan vazgeçmedikleri, bu bağlamda dini pratiklerini özgün bir şekilde ürettikleri ve transseksüel bir bireyin otomatik olarak din dışı addedilmesinin yanlış bir kanı olduğu bulgusuna ulaşılmıştır.
'The ones who walk away': An ethnography of exiled Egyptian expatriates in Istanbul
This ethnographic study delves into Egypt's post-2013 politically-motivated migration wave. After the military takeover of the country in the summer of 2013, numerous Egyptian opponents fled the country in fear of the state crackdown. In this study, I delve into the nuances of what it is like to be an Egyptian political migrant living in Istanbul. Looking at the potentialities between the "not yet" and the "no longer" and the spaces between hope and despair, I attempt to explain how these exiled individuals engage with the political situation in Egypt given that their physical presence became elsewhere. This study was carried out between the years 2021 and 2022, combining several qualitative methodologies. I conducted fifteen semi-structured in-depth interviews. I merged my interviews with participant observation, attending social gatherings, a live concert, and drama shooting days. I also included a digital ethnographic method, which allowed me to explore how my interlocutors express their emotions in the digital space which is the only space that ties them to their homeland. Lastly, I integrated a content analysis method to highlight the recurrent themes in the drama produced by exiled artists in Turkey. Using Derrida's concept of hauntology (1993), Turner's theory of liminality (1967), and Deleuze's "lines of flight" (1987), I argue that these expatriates are constantly haunted by the memory of their homeland and the specter of the unfulfilled yearnings of the so-called Arab Spring. In the artistic sphere, some of my interlocutors found themselves reliving the pain of forcibly fleeing the country while they also found a way to escape their realities and create new meanings. Respectively and in light of the three aforementioned theories, I focus on three particular affects, namely nostalgia, ambivalence, and hope. In these ways, this ethnography also adds to the quite-scarce anthropological literature on the Egyptian post-2013 politically-motivated migration wave.
Alternative learning spaces in Cairo: The (re)making of space and real life
This thesis analyzes alternative learning spaces in Cairo. These spaces are considered modes of alternative education, away from the mainstream traditional schooling system. The two key aims of this study are to explore the space-making experiences of the people engaged in these alternative learning spaces as well as the alternative that these spaces represent within and beyond the educational realm. This study discusses the space-making and the alternative question in a thematic manner, with three themes underpinning my thesis. The first theme is "Towards the Space," where I foreground and conceptualize space and its relationship to learning. The second is "Within the Space" where I look at the materiality and relationships of the space, and the final theme is "Beyond the Space" where I build up my main argument that alternative learning spaces in Cairo are more than mere learning spaces. Instead, I argue, they produce an alternative vision of real life that reimagines meanings and different ways of learning and life and accordingly engages with them. A related argument I make is that these spaces are socially constructed as an extension of home. At the heart of this is the role of collective emotions that is significant in space-making. I also reframe the social relations into what I call an alternative community, where I attribute the endurance of such social relations to the Islamic actualization of alternative education found in these spaces. I include in this study two alternative learning spaces, which I refer to as the "alternative school" and the "free-learning space". The main data collection technique I have utilized is online in-depth interviews with the founders, managers, teachers, facilitators as well as parents from the alternative school and the free learning space. I focus my analysis on the time frame during which my study was conducted, 2021-22. As I experienced space at a distance, not firsthand, I engage with it as another spatial dimension. Accordingly, the study focuses on the discursive descriptions of the interlocutors.
Akademisyenlerin çevre algısı ve çevreye dini ve manevi yaklaşımları
Bu çalışmanın amacı, akademisyenlerin çevreyi nasıl algıladıkları ve çevreye yönelik dini ve manevi açıdan nasıl bir yaklaşıma sahip olduklarını analiz etmektir. Çalışma kapsamında kavram olarak çevre, çevre algısı ve çevre sorunları, sorunların kaynağındaki nedenler, olası çözüm önerileri, çevre algısı ve çevre sorunlarının dini inançla olan ilişkisi, akademide ve eğitimde çevrenin önemi, modernite ve teknolojik gelişmelerin etkisinde insan ve çevre ilişkisi ve korona virüs tecrübesi ile insan ve çevre ilişkisi akademisyenlerin görüşlerine başvurularak mukayeseli bir biçimde incelenmektedir. Bugün, fen bilimlerinin yanı sıra sosyal bilimlerde farklı açılardan araştırma konusu yapılan çevre ile ilgili hemen her gün yeni bir çalışma yapılmaktadır. Ancak literatürde çevre algısına yönelik akademisyenlerin yaklaşımlarına başvurularak yürütülen herhangi bir araştırmaya rastlanamamıştır. Mevcut çalışmada, akademisyenlerin çevreyi ve çevre sorunlarını algılayışlarında dini ve manevi değerlerin etkisi sorgulanmıştır. Sahip olunan çevre algısında dinin yegâne etken olduğu söylenememekle birlikte, dinden bağımsız bir çevre anlayışının da mümkün olamayacağı bulgusuna rastlanmıştır. Söz konusu çalışma, akademisyenlerle yapılan derinlemesine mülakatlardan elde edilen nitel verilerin yanı sıra çevre ile ilgili bugüne dek yürütülen çalışmalara ve geliştirilen teorilere dayanmaktadır. Bu açıdan araştırmanın sosyolojik bir nitelik taşıdığı ifade edilmelidir. Çalışmada çevrenin ele alınış şekli bakımından daha çok beşerî yönü üzerinde durulmuş olup toplumsal bir olgu olarak insan ve çevre ilişkisine odaklanılmıştır. Ayrıca, araştırmada fiziki çevreye yönelik değerlendirmeler yer almakla birlikte, çevrenin sosyal ve manevi yönüne de vurgu yapılmaktadır. Bu araştırmanın evrenini akademisyenler oluşturmakta olup örnekleminde ise sosyal bilimler alanı ağırlıklı olmak üzere İstanbul'da bulunan ve farklı bölümlerde görevli olan 13 akademisyen yer almaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Akademisyenler, Çevre algısı, Çevre sorunları, Çevre ve Din, İnsan ve Çevre.