17/12/2025
SU Gender organized the third International Conference on Gender Studies in Türkiye at the Sabancı Center Conference Hall on December 6-7. The conference, attended by numerous academics, researchers, and civil society representatives from Türkiye and abroad, featured 52 presentations in parallel sessions addressing topics such as politics, migration, space, psychology, health, the body, family, labor, violence, masculinities, literature, art, and many more. The conference included 16 sessions and 6 workshops, with a total of over 300 participants.
Speaking on behalf of the Organizing Committee, Zeynep Gülru Göker, a faculty member at Sabancı University and Director of SU Gender, stated that the conference aimed to create a platform where current research on Türkiye and gender studies in Türkiye would be presented and discussed, and where researchers would meet regularly. She said, “We are thrilled and happy to be together with you for the third time. The papers presented in the first two years, the applications this year, and the resulting rich program show that we have achieved this goal from the very beginning, and this makes us very happy. Looking at the program, we witness both the richness of gender studies in and about Türkiye, and the disciplinary diversity and interdisciplinarity in this field.”
On the first day of the conference, the opening address was given by Banu Gökarıksel, Professor of Geography and Environment and Head of the Global Studies Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her presentation titled “Close Care at the Border: Feminist Geographies of Refugee Resettlement and the Humanitarian Contradiction,” Gökarıksel discussed the tension between volunteers’ personal care practices and institutions’ expectations of “healthy borders” and rapid autonomy in refugee resettlement processes in the US. She described how neoliberal and colonial humanitarian aid logics shape these care relationships and how volunteers negotiate these contradictions through emotional labor and resistance practices. The opening session was moderated by Aslı İkizoğlu Erensü, a faculty member at Sabancı University.
This year, a roundtable discussion titled “Masculinities and Politics” was also held on the second day of the conference. The round table session was moderated and chaired by Sabancı University faculty member Cenk Özbay, and the other three speakers, Selin Akyüz, Feyda Sayan Cengiz, and Çimen Günay Erkol, discussed their work in this field, their academic journeys, and their predictions regarding current priorities and future trends in research in this area.
During the conference, parallel sessions presented research on numerous topics, including resilience and labor; gender, power, and transformation; proximity, violence, and empowerment; space, city, and migration. In interactive workshops open to pre-registration, participants had the opportunity to delve into creative production processes addressing the intersections of migration, gender, and identity through collage; the possibilities of social transformation through care work and lullabies; how intersectionality in psychological research can bridge theoretical depth with quantitative methods; the solidarity practices of researchers conducting gender and sexuality studies in Turkish academia; discussions on new social contracts focusing on youth demands for equality; and the details of institutional mechanisms and policies developed against sexual harassment in the publishing field. The detailed conference program and abstract booklet containing the presentations are available on the website.
Dicle Koğacıoğlu 2025 Article Award Panel and Award Ceremony
On the first day of the conference, we organized the Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Award Panel and Ceremony, held for the 16th time this year in memory of our former faculty member, sociologist Dicle Koğacıoğlu, with the aim of supporting gender-focused studies in Türkiye and encouraging young researchers. This year, the article award was given to Sıla Türköne, a doctoral student at Ibn Haldun University, while the encouragement incentive was given to Tanya Aktaş, a doctoral student from Istanbul University, and Tuna Kuzucan, a lecturer from Sinop University. Following the panel moderated by Yağmur Nuhrat, the awards were presented to the article authors.
Şirin Tekeli 2025 Research Award Panel and Award Ceremony
On the second day of the conference, we held the Şirin Tekeli Research Award Panel and Award Ceremony, which we have been organizing since 2017 to contribute to the continuation, sharing, and diversification of the rich legacy left by Şirin Tekeli. In the panel, which was held for the 9th time this year, Sinem Bal, who received the award last year, and Yağmur Çağatay, who received incentive support, presented their research findings. Following the panel, moderated by Cenk Özbay, the results of the 2025 award were announced. This year, Duygu Altınoluk, a faculty member at Kilis 7 Aralık University, was selected to receive the research award for her research proposal, and Özde Nalan Köseoğlu was selected to receive incentive support for her research proposal.
