Dr. Matthew Hayes and Dr. Shaun Narine are continuing their Global Studies Seminars this term, showcasing faculty research and facilitating discussion on global, international, and transnational studies.

The third seminar in the series, titled "Everything Will Start By Loving a Tree: A Deleuzian/Guattarian Analysis of Gezi," will be presented by Dr. Gül Çalışkan, Department of Sociology, March 14 at 12:00 pm in McCain Hall room 309. 

Although Gezi Park was all but unknown prior to 2013, this small park in Istanbul rapidly became the epicenter of nationwide protests that summer in Turkey. The uprising is now globally known simply as “Gezi.” One might argue that Gezi was not a success, even maybe to be blamed for the Erdoğan government’s increased authoritarianism, his millet (nation) nostalgia for building supra nationalist and religious policies. However, Dr. Çalışkan will argue Gezi was a spectacular, albeit ephemeral, rupture in Erdoğan’s authoritarianism, and that it created a remarkable repertoire of humor and symbols. 

Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s (1994) theory of assemblage, Dr. Çalışkan will analyze the events at Gezi Park in Istanbul 2013. As Davis would argue, the Deleuzian/Guattarian perspective on assemblages (agencements) enables us to creatively engage in a discursive, spatial, and performative exchange between states and popular uprisings.