07/01/2015
Established by the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum in memory of academic and activist Dicle Koğacıoğlu, this year’s awards were presented on Saturday, December 27 at a ceremony following a student conference at the Minerva Palas in Karaköy. First prize went to Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil, second prize to Aslı Zengin, and third prize to Melike Gül Demir. The Honorable Mention was awarded to Derya Acuner.
The student conference began with introductory remarks by Tuğçe Ellialtı, a graduate of the Sabancı University master’s program in Cultural Studies, and a PhD student and lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania. Ellialtı, a PhD student in Sociology whose particular field of study is “Gender Equity under Legal Reforms and Sociopolitical Transformation: Sexual Violence in Court Hearings in Turkey,” gave a speech titled “Dicle Koğacıoğlu in the Eyes of a Student.”
Introductory remarks were followed by the first panel discussion, moderated by Nişantaşı University Faculty Member Nil Mutluer. Speaking in the panel were Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil from the Middle East Technical University with her paper titled “Opening Rooms: How Women Create Their Own Living Spaces” and Derya Acuner from Istanbul Bilgi University on “Demonized City Streets: Comments on the Urban Experience of Women.” Speaking on city streets, Derya Acuner said “The streets may be the sphere of the establishment, but they are also the sphere of discord.” Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil spoke on her work conducted with women living in the province of Sivas.
The papers in the second panel were by Aslı Zengin from the University of York on “The Lethal World of Love: Family, Friends and Trans Women Funerals” and by Melike Gül Demir from Maltepe University on “Holding onto ‘Peace’ in the Peripheries of the City: Village Evacuations As Told by Kurdish Women”. The moderator of the panel was Sabancı University Faculty Member Ayşe Gül Altınay. In her paper, Aslı Zengin focused on the deaths and funerals of trans women and their exclusion by their biological families. Zengin argued that “indebtedness” was the most important relationship that shaped the family, and that “family” meant “exclusion” for LGBT individuals. Aslı Zengin said, “The experiences of trans women with illness and death are the result of heteroproductive children preserving their bodies.”
In the second paper, Melike Gül Demir discussed her work with women who have migrated from Diyarbakır, Urfa and Siirt to Istanbul. Melike Gül Demir said that women traced the beginning of their ordeals to the day their village was burned down. Demir noted that women admit to working at the same level with men when at the party, yet treating their daughters in a patriarchal manner back at home. Melike Gül Demir also explained that women do not feel trusted by men when making decisions despite their cooperation and comradeship in the party.
Dicle Koğacıoğlu Awards aim to support gender-focused studies on the society and culture in Turkey and to encourage young researchers. Also attending the Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Awards Ceremony were Dicle Koğacıoğlu’s family, friends, colleagues and students.