Professor Nazan Üstündağ discusses the relationship between organisation and freedom.
The discussion starts at 3:36
Organizedness is one of the main principles of the Kurdish women’s movement’s ‘women’s liberation ideology’. Unlike liberal ideas around freedom, the Kurdish freedom movement believes that without organization, it will be impossible to transform social relations. In turn, without transforming and changing society, one cannot build a free life for all of society. In this sense, there is an inherent connection between freedom and organization. In this talk, Nazan Üstündağ will discuss the links between freedom and organisation. What ideological perspectives and political practices enable forms of freedom in the here and now? Why is organisation a necessary prerequisite for the ability to imagine radical horizons?
Nazan Üstündağ received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the sociology department at Indiana University Bloomington. Between 2005 and 2018, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Boğaziçi University, Department of Sociology. Between 2018 and 2020 she was affiliated with the Transregionale Studien in Berlin as an Academy in Exile and IIE-Scholar Rescue Fund fellow. Currently, she is receiving a fellowship from Gerda Henkel Stiftung Patrimonies program.
Her most recent articles appeared in the journals South Atlantic Quarterly, History of the Present and Differences. She has also worked as a columnist in the journal Nokta and the newspaper Özgür Gündem and her opinion pieces appeared in venues such as Bianet, T24, Roar Magazine and Jadaliyya. Üstündağ is a member of Women for Peace and Academics for Peace. Most recently, she is finishing a book manuscript with the working title Mother, Politician and Guerilla: The Emergence of A New Political Cosmology in Kurdistan Through Women’s Bodies and Speech.