The Historico-Political Parameters of Academic Feminism in Turkey: Breaks and Continuities

Abstract

Academic feminism introduced new arguments and prospects onto the feminist agenda that had repercussions for the feminist mind-set. Despite its challenging account of feminist principles in the knowledge production process of Turkish universities as in the West, the evolution of academic feminism in Turkey differed theoretically and practically to produce its own unique agenda. In this chapter, we explore feminist knowledge production processes in Turkey in relation to major debates and issues from a politico-historical perspective. We employ a bipartite analysis focusing on two cross-cutting themes. That is, while focusing on Turkey’s prominent women’s/gender research centers as the major platforms of feminist knowledge production and dissemination, we also intend to map the major works in the field that we consider significant for depicting the thematic and epistemological breaks and continuities in the evolution of feminist studies in Turkey.