Papers by Hande Eslen-Ziya
Academic state of anomie in gender studies: masked and expressed emotions within the academic environment in Turkey, 2025
Academics in Turkey face relentless demands for productivity and competition, exacerbated by neol... more Academics in Turkey face relentless demands for productivity and competition, exacerbated by neoliberal and anti-gender ideologies. These pressures erode well-being, fostering isolation and self-doubt. This study examines the lived experiences of Gender Studies scholars-our closest colleagues-who navigate both an oppressive political climate and rising anti-gender sentiments. Our findings reveal emotional and physical distress: exhaustion, stress, anxiety, guilt, and alienation. Yet, higher education institutions fail to address these struggles, highlighting a gap between academics' needs and institutional policies. This neglect perpetuates a state of anomie, where scholars internalize academia's structural failures as personal shortcomings. Ultimately, we argue that unspoken power hierarchies and personal sacrifices reinforce this toxic cycle, forcing academics to bear the burden of systemic failures.
Journal of Gender Studies , 2025
Academics in Turkey face relentless demands for productivity and competition, exacerbated by neol... more Academics in Turkey face relentless demands for productivity and competition, exacerbated by neoliberal and anti-gender ideologies. These pressures erode well-being, fostering isolation and self-doubt. This study examines the lived experiences of Gender Studies scholars—our closest colleagues—who navigate both an oppressive political climate and rising anti-gender sentiments. Our findings reveal emotional and physical distress: exhaustion, stress, anxiety, guilt, and alienation. Yet, higher education institutions fail to address these struggles, highlighting a gap between academics’ needs and institutional policies. This neglect perpetuates a state of anomie, where scholars internalize academia’s structural failures as personal shortcomings. Ultimately, we argue that unspoken power hierarchies and personal sacrifices reinforce this toxic cycle, forcing academics to bear the burden of systemic failures.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES, 2024
This study delves into the nuanced dynamics of populism in Turkish
politics, focusing on the Just... more This study delves into the nuanced dynamics of populism in Turkish
politics, focusing on the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Over the past two decades, we contend that the AKP’s policy proposals and projects have transcended mere political promises, instead evolving into meticulously planned physical embodiments of the party’s political dominance. Through an in-depth analysis of one of the AKP’s recent mega undertakings, the Canal
Istanbul project, we unveil a strategic shift in the party’s populist tactics aimed at fortifying its political hegemony. Moreover, this paper sheds light on a covert process of polarisation within the AKP’s apparent transition from a divisive approach to one centred on persuasion, particularly targeting the opponent political party, the CHP Republican People’s Party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi. We posit that the AKP strategically positions itself as a victim of its adversaries, strategically laying the foundation for its persuasive agenda. This research offers critical insights into the multifaceted strategies employed by the AKP and CHP in navigating the complex terrain of populist politics in Turkey and furthers the empirical studies in the populism debate in general.
Feminist Media Studies, Nov 28, 2023
Recently, academia has become an arena of political conflict that results in the corrosion of aca... more Recently, academia has become an arena of political conflict that results in the corrosion of academic life in general. Restrictions of academic freedom and lack of research autonomy, in addition to standardized success criteria of neoliberal universities, have created an academic reality contributing to hierarchy, competition, anxiety, burnout , and precariousness. Taking gender studies as a case, we aim to define and conceptualize academic sustainability in relation to attacks on the academic freedom and academic well-being of gender scholars.
Turkish Studies, Oct 4, 2023
This study aims to understand how ideologies become embedded in political projects through strate... more This study aims to understand how ideologies become embedded in political projects through strategies of legitimation aimed at justifying specific ideas, beliefs, and emotions. By using the political negotiation between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) concerning the Canal Istanbul Project as an illustrative example from Turkey to 'ideology in action', this article shows how various rhetorical combinations appeal to an analysis of 'ideology at work'. Our analysis is based on 20 in-depth interviews with both opponents and supporters of the project, in addition to a comparison of two official websites providing scientific evidence from each party's perspective. The results show that the two poles of the dispute aim to recruit more people as their political supporters by using their own scientific reports with claims that they are 'objective' and aspire for the benefit of Istanbul.
Feminist Media Studies
Academic research is currently undergoing a wave of contestation, ranging from violent attacks an... more Academic research is currently undergoing a wave of contestation, ranging from violent attacks and life-threatening situations to public undermining of their research and online threats and harassment. A variety of actors engage in hostile behaviors, including ordinary people as well as state institutions, and address scholars working in diverse disciplines and on diverse topics, such as climate change, vaccination, gender studies, colonialism and Islam studies. Recent research shows that female scholars, sexual and racialized minorities, and precarious researchers are the most likely target of online attacks. This contribution presents the results of a research project on academics facing online harassment in times of populism, drawing on data from an original survey to explore the ambivalences of academics’ public engagement, the public role of universities, and, more broadly, the impact of current attacks on academic knowledge.
Social Sciences and Humanities Open , 2024
This short communication is based on a qualitative study investigating the relationship between d... more This short communication is based on a qualitative study investigating the relationship between digital technologies and gender-based violence (GBV). The term, TechViolence Nexus, introduced in this article, offers an in-depth understanding of the cyclic interaction between digital coercive control and (socio)digital inequalities. It highlights the ambiguities created by technologies in victim-survivors' lives, revealing the ways in which digital coercive control intensifies and prolongs the reach of perpetrators and excludes women from technological spaces. Our framework calls for a reimagining of technology design and policy implementation that accounts for the impacts of GBV and digital inequalities on women's experiences of technologies.
Feminist Media Studies , 2024
In this paper, we examine a recent incident involving Gülşen, a Turkish singer who was brutally a... more In this paper, we examine a recent incident involving Gülşen, a Turkish singer who was brutally attacked on Twitter (now X), and demonstrate how moral panics translate into misogynist e-bile and violent cyber-attacks, both of which reinforce a polarized political environment. We analysed tweets posted 24-August 30 2022 and show that e-bile was used distinctly more often by opponents of Gülşen who are characterized by religiously conservative norms and values. We suggest that Gülşen's subsequent criminalization by state institutions (she was detained and arrested in the aftermath of #arrestgülşen) effectively validated the violent attacks of Gülşen's opponents while leaving her supporters intimidated and paralysed. Our study contributes to the understanding of e-bile by suggesting that cultural intelligibility and political hegemony make space for and legitimize the graphic language of online communities. By the same token, misogynistic and homophobic invective turns into an instrument of symbolic violence that is exercised by culturally and politically privileged segments of society.
Social Politics, Mar 1, 2023
In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in the ways in which a wide range of political a... more In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in the ways in which a wide range of political actors with illiberal aims mobilize the broad and fluid concept of gender Verloo (2018). Scholars such as Agnieszka Graff and El_ zbieta Korolczuk (2022) have argued that the global and expanding phenomenon of anti-gender mobilization crucially taps into collective fears related to the perceived loss of culture and identity, increasing individualism, and the erosion of (imagined) communities in a fast-paced and ever-changing world (Graff and Korolczuk 2022, 15). Ov Cristian Norocel and Ionela B aluţ a (2021) use the concept of "retrogressive mobilization" (Bouvart, De Proost, and Norocel 2019, 5) to characterize anti-gender politics, which encapsulate illiberal mobilization against a range of issues and policy positions (e.g., sex education in schools, same-sex marriage, and abortion rights) by a "complicated assemblage" of actors ranging from both mainstream conservative and radical right politicians to grassroots movements and extremist actors (Norocel and B aluţ a 2021, 3). This Special Section was developed as a product from a one-day workshop in March 2021 organized by the Research Group on Populism, Anti-Gender and Democracy at the University of Stavanger, and the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo, where a group of scholars came together and presented their work exploring anti-feminist mobilization. Although the workshop captured discussions on gender-based mobilization in relation to illiberal politics across a variety of cultural contexts and platforms through the prism of various dominant understandings of gender, sexuality, masculinity, and femininity, this Special Section will focus on a smaller selection of these works and presents case studies from Norway, Turkey, Italy, India, and Brazil.
Journal of Middle East Women's Studies
This article attempts to show how government-supported women’s NGOs (GO-NGOs) in Turkey actively ... more This article attempts to show how government-supported women’s NGOs (GO-NGOs) in Turkey actively contribute to the construction of neoliberal, conservative, antigender discourses of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Since the second decade of the 2000s, Turkey has undergone rapid de-democratization as a result of AKP’s election victories, which have brought with them a major backlash against gender equality policies. Moreover, a new political discourse constructed by the government has replaced the concept of gender equality with gender justice and gender equity. Relying on seven semistructured in-depth interviews with members of GO-NGOs and a review of primary and secondary documents, this article contends that the civil society established under the so-called New Turkey situates it in the construction of antigender and antiwomen’s rights discourse.
Feminist Media Studies
The withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention (in March 2021) and the high prevalence of gender-bas... more The withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention (in March 2021) and the high prevalence of gender-based violence reflect the current patriarchal political atmosphere in Turkey. Such backlash occurred despite the strong feminist resistance and transnational support to combat anti-gender developments. In this political climate, online disclosures of gender-based violence have become critical in shaping public debates about violence against women in Turkey. In the last decade, we have witnessed a movement similar to #MeToo, whereby women shared their experiences of gender-based violence on Twitter. This paper is about six of these disclosures and how they formed networked feminist counterpublics. Through a qualitative study of our participants´ lived experiences of online disclosures, we aim to illustrate what responses and reactions they encountered in online spaces, how these reactions and responses affected their well-being, what online spaces offered to them to counteract their victimisation, and, finally, how these online disclosures contributed to feminist collective consciousness and agency in Turkey. Our findings reveal dual consequences of disclosing gender-based violence online, where these networked feminist counterpublics bring together the excluded stories and challenge the mainstream public knowledge, and yet, at the same time, result in backlashes and digital vulnerabilities.
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society
In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in the ways in which a wide range of political a... more In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in the ways in which a wide range of political actors with illiberal aims mobilize the broad and fluid concept of gender Verloo (2018). Scholars such as Agnieszka Graff and El_ zbieta Korolczuk (2022) have argued that the global and expanding phenomenon of anti-gender mobilization crucially taps into collective fears related to the perceived loss of culture and identity, increasing individualism, and the erosion of (imagined) communities in a fast-paced and ever-changing world (Graff and Korolczuk 2022, 15). Ov Cristian Norocel and Ionela B aluţ a (2021) use the concept of "retrogressive mobilization" (Bouvart, De Proost, and Norocel 2019, 5) to characterize anti-gender politics, which encapsulate illiberal mobilization against a range of issues and policy positions (e.g., sex education in schools, same-sex marriage, and abortion rights) by a "complicated assemblage" of actors ranging from both mainstream conservative and radical right politicians to grassroots movements and extremist actors (Norocel and B aluţ a 2021, 3). This Special Section was developed as a product from a one-day workshop in March 2021 organized by the Research Group on Populism, Anti-Gender and Democracy at the University of Stavanger, and the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo, where a group of scholars came together and presented their work exploring anti-feminist mobilization. Although the workshop captured discussions on gender-based mobilization in relation to illiberal politics across a variety of cultural contexts and platforms through the prism of various dominant understandings of gender, sexuality, masculinity, and femininity, this Special Section will focus on a smaller selection of these works and presents case studies from Norway, Turkey, Italy, India, and Brazil.
Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal
Recent scholarship considers digital platforms’ potential to serve as sites for feminist counter-... more Recent scholarship considers digital platforms’ potential to serve as sites for feminist counter-spaces. ‘Speaking out’ or disclosing gender-based violence online allows survivors to give voice to their experiences and create a political arena for seeking informal forms of justice. What is significant in these instances is not a shift away from formal justice mechanisms but how the alternative ones take a survivor-focused approach to meet their needs and interests. The survivors who choose to disclose publicly – by describing their experiences in their own words – seek validation and solidarity and hold their perpetrators responsible for the harm they caused. Based on a multilevel justice approach, this research studies how – or whether – digital platforms enable community recognition and awareness regarding gender-based violence in Turkey. By exploring the experiences of six women from Turkey who were subjected to gender-based violence and disclosed online, we ask what justice mean...
Modernity, Memory and Identity in South-East Europe
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Papers by Hande Eslen-Ziya
politics, focusing on the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Over the past two decades, we contend that the AKP’s policy proposals and projects have transcended mere political promises, instead evolving into meticulously planned physical embodiments of the party’s political dominance. Through an in-depth analysis of one of the AKP’s recent mega undertakings, the Canal
Istanbul project, we unveil a strategic shift in the party’s populist tactics aimed at fortifying its political hegemony. Moreover, this paper sheds light on a covert process of polarisation within the AKP’s apparent transition from a divisive approach to one centred on persuasion, particularly targeting the opponent political party, the CHP Republican People’s Party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi. We posit that the AKP strategically positions itself as a victim of its adversaries, strategically laying the foundation for its persuasive agenda. This research offers critical insights into the multifaceted strategies employed by the AKP and CHP in navigating the complex terrain of populist politics in Turkey and furthers the empirical studies in the populism debate in general.
politics, focusing on the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Over the past two decades, we contend that the AKP’s policy proposals and projects have transcended mere political promises, instead evolving into meticulously planned physical embodiments of the party’s political dominance. Through an in-depth analysis of one of the AKP’s recent mega undertakings, the Canal
Istanbul project, we unveil a strategic shift in the party’s populist tactics aimed at fortifying its political hegemony. Moreover, this paper sheds light on a covert process of polarisation within the AKP’s apparent transition from a divisive approach to one centred on persuasion, particularly targeting the opponent political party, the CHP Republican People’s Party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi. We posit that the AKP strategically positions itself as a victim of its adversaries, strategically laying the foundation for its persuasive agenda. This research offers critical insights into the multifaceted strategies employed by the AKP and CHP in navigating the complex terrain of populist politics in Turkey and furthers the empirical studies in the populism debate in general.
Keywords: South Africa; LGBTI rights; ideas; institutions; conservative ideas
This book looks at how centralized religion has turned into a means of controlling and organizing the Turkish polity under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) governments by presenting the results from a study on Turkish hutbes (mosque sermons), analysing how their content relates to gender roles and identities. The book argues that the political domination of a secular state as an agency over religion has not suppressed, but transformed, religion into a political tool for the same agency to organise the polity and the society along its own ideological tenets. It looks at how this domination organises gender roles and identities to engender human capital to serve for a neoliberal economic developmentalism. The book then discusses the limits of this domination, reflecting on how its subjects position themselves between the politico-religious authority and their secular lives.
Written in an accessible format, this book provides a fresh perspective on the relationship between religion and politics in the Middle East. More broadly, it also sheds light on global moral politics and illiberalism and why it relates to gender, religion and economics.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Moral politics, neoliberal governmentality, and gender
2. Discourse to Emotion Framework: How to read hutbes as data sources?
3. How do public narratives serve for neoliberal governmentality?
4. Manipulation, Discipline and Regulation: The Discursive Construction of Expertise and Social Policy
5. Deliberation, Contestation, and the boundaries of neoliberal governmentality
Conclusion
Appendix
This book looks at how centralised religion has turned into a means of controlling and organising the Turkish polity under the AKP (Justice and Development Party) governments by presenting the results from a study on Turkish hutbes (mosque sermons), analysing how their content relates to gender roles and identities. The book argues that the political domination of a secular state as an agency over religion has not suppressed, but transformed, religion into a political tool for the same agency to organise the polity and the society along its own ideological tenets. It looks at how this domination organises gender roles and identities to engender human capital to serve for a neoliberal economic developmentalism. The book then discusses the limits of this domination, reflecting on how its subjects position themselves between the politico-religious authority and their secular lives.
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Table of Contents:
Introduction
Chapter I - Moral politics, neoliberal governmentality, and gender
Chapter II - Discourse to Emotion Framework: How to read hutbes as data sources?
Chapter III - How do public narratives serve for neoliberal governmentality?
Chapter IV - Manipulation, Discipline and Regulation: The Discursive Construction of Expertise and Social Policy
Chapter V - Deliberation and Contestation of neoliberal governmentality
Conclusion
Appendix
References
Türkiye’nin farklı coğrafyalarında, farklı ekonomik düzeylerde yaşayan evli erkeklerin kendi anne-babalarıyla, çocuklarıyla ve eşleriyle kurdukları, yansıttıkları ilişkilerin, bu kitapta ortaya konan tablosu, tüm sosyal bilimciler için son derece zengin bir malzeme sunuyor. Bu tabloda, geçmiş ve gelecek arasında kalan bugünün erkeklerinin kendilerini, ailelerini, giderek bütün çevrelerini nasıl şekillendirdiği ve farklı kesimlerden erkeklerin hayat öykülerinin nasıl farklı seyirler izleyebileceği görülüyor.
Erkekliğin Türkiye Halleri, Türkiye’de yaşayan erkeklerin farklı varoluş hallerini anlamak isteyenler için vazgeçilmez bir çalışma.
Erkekliğin Türkiye Halleri, Türkiyede toplumsal cinsiyet konusunu kavramaya çalışanların büyük dikkatle okuması gereken bir eser. Aile dinamiğini nicel ve nitel boyutlarıyla mercek altına alarak, oğul olmanın, baba olmanın, eş olmanın ve erkek benliğini inşa eden söylemlerin çelişkilerini, kopukluklarını ve devamlılıklarını zengin bir anlatımla sunuyor. Hem devamlılığa destek veren geleneksel kalıplara, hem de kırılmalara yol açan sosyal değişmelere hassas olan bu çalışma, ataerkilliğin erkeklere olan bedeli konusunda bizi aydınlatıyor ve kalıcı değişimin ancak bu ‘derin’ yapıların evrilmesinden geçeceğini gösteriyor.
Emeritus Prof. Dr. Deniz Kandiyoti
Erkekliğin Türkiye Halleri, erkek otoritesine dayalı aile ilişkilerinin krizini ve yerine gelmekte olan yeni aile ilişki tarzlarını anlamak isteyenlerin mutlaka okuması gereken bir kitap. Erkeklerin var olan erkeklik değerlerini sorgulayan ve daha eşitlikçi, şiddetsiz ilişkilerin öznesi olmaya çalışan çabalarını görünür kılan öncü araştırmalardan birini bize sunuyor. Sosyal bilimcilerin ve özellikle de toplumsal cinsiyet çalışmaları yapanların kütüphanesinde temel başvuru kitaplarından biri olmaya aday bir araştırma.
Prof. Dr. Serpil Sancar
Katılımcıların kendi babalarıyla ilgili anlatımlarının karmaşık duygularla, minnet ve serzenişin içiçe geçtiği, çelişkili ifadelerle dolu olduğu, aynı çelişkilerin anneleriyle ilişkide çok daha az, neredeyse yok gibi olduğu görülüyor. Ancak konu kendi çocuklarıyla ilişki olunca, her ne kadar kendi babalarından farklı olduklarını belirtseler de, yine bazı çelişkiler, ikilemler gündeme geliyor.
Bu da geleneksel kültürel altyapının çok yavaş değiştiğini, anneye ilişkin deneyimin hâlâ gelenekten kopmadığını, babayla ilgili deneyiminse çocuklar üzerinden dönüştürülmeye çalışıldığını ve yaşanan ikilemlerin erkeklerin kendi eşleri ile ilişkilere de yansıdığını gösteriyor.
Hale Bolak Boratav, Güler Okman Fişek, Hande Eslen Ziya