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CUHK Public Lecture by Turkish Sociologist Meltem Ahiska
Dr. Meltem Ahiska, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, is invited to Hong Kong to host the upcoming lecture of the Public Lecture Series on Gender Studies 2010, organized by the Gender Studies Programme of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and sponsored by the Lee Hysan Foundation.
During the lecture entitled ‘The Gendered Grammar of Occidentalism: Modes of addressing violence against women in Turkey’, Dr. Ahiska will take occidentalism as a historical and dialogical construction of modernity in Turkey in relation to the so-called ‘East’ and ‘West’, and argue that occidentalism has established a performative grammar of power, which can be put into service for explaining away, and legitimizing gender discrimination and violence by using the terms of a projected Westernism.
Dr. Ahiska is the author of The Magical Door of Radio: Occidentalism and Political Subjectivity (Radyonun Sihirli Kapisi: Garbiyatcilik ve Politik Oznellik) and the co-author of ‘The Indivisible Unity of the Nation’: Fragmenting Nationalism(s) in the Democratization Process (‘Milletin Bolunmez Butunlugu’ : Demokratiklesme Surecinde Parcalayan Milliyetcilik(ler)). She has also contributed to Waiting for the Barbarians: A Tribute to Edward Said with a chapter entitled ‘Orientalism/Occidentalism: The Impasse of Modernity’, and various publications on occidentalism, social memory, gender and related issues. Her new book, Occidentalism in Turkey: Questions of Modernity and National Identity in Turkish Radio Broadcasting by I.B.Tauris of London, is forthcoming as well.
Members of the public are welcome to register for the public lecture at http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/gender/publiclecture.htm. For enquiries, please contact the Gender Studies Programme of CUHK (Tel: 2696 1026; Fax: 2603 7223; E-mail: genderstudiesPLS@cuhk.edu.hk). Details of the lecture are as follows:
Date: 28 April 2010 (Wed)
Time: 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Venue: Rm 202, Duke of Windsor Social Service Building, 15 Hennessey Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong (Wan Chai MTR Exit A2)
Language: English
Chair: Prof. Meaghan Morris, Chair Professor, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University
