Welcome to our first speakers for the spring 2018 semester
on January 26*

Eser Selen, Ph.D.
artist and associate professor, Visual Communication Department,
Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Namalie Jayasinghe
Ph.D. School of International Service at American University;
women’s rights researcher, Oxfam, America

“Mapping Gender Equality and Violence Discourses in Turkey” 

Eser Selen received a master’s degree in fine arts from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey (1999), another in performance studies from NYU (2002), and has a Ph.D. in performance studies from NYU (2010). Her dissertation is entitled “The Work of Sacrifice: Gender Performativity, Modernity, and Islam in Turkish Contemporary Performance.” Her research interests include feminisms, performance studies, theories of gender and sexuality, contemporary art, and visual culture. Her work has appeared in edited volumes and such journals as Gender, Place, and Culture, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, and Kybernetes. She has presented at conferences both nationally in Turkey, and internationally. She is also a visual artist whose work encompasses performance art, installation and video, and has exhibited and performed in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Australia.

Namalie Jayasinghe has held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Gender and Women’s Studies Research Center at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, where she conducted an analysis of discourses of violence against women in Sri Lanka and Turkey. Her Ph.D. is on the gendered impact of natural disasters in Sri Lanka.  She holds a B.A. in economics from NYU and an M.Sc. in environment and development from the London School of Economics. Active in the field of sustainable development, she has worked on integrating gender equality and social inclusion into natural resource management programs in West Africa, monitoring local community approaches to tsunami recovery and biodiversity conservation in Sri Lanka, and supporting women-led organizations focusing on post-disaster reconstruction on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

*It is ESSENTIAL that you RSVP to Nanette Funk <nanettefunk1@gmail.com> or Sonia Jaffe Robbins <sjr1991@gmail.com> so that we can leave your name with security at the front desk.
We meet at the Center for European & Mediterranean Studies, NYU, 53 Washington Square South, 3rd floor, 4:30-6 p.m. After the workshop, we usually continue the discussion over an informal dinner, and all are welcome.