Gendered Nostalgia: Neo-Ottomanism in Islamist Women’s Media in Turkey

ended

Neo-Ottomanism (NO), the aim to revitalize the Ottoman imperial past in contemporary Turkish society, constitutes the ideological basis of the populist authoritarianism of the AKP, the ruling Islamist party in Turkey, since 2007. Thanks to its spread in the cultural field, chiefly in TV series, it has been gaining increasing popularity in Turkey and its diaspora. Considering its nationalist and Islamist roots, claims of authenticity and uses of history and nostalgia, which work to legitimize gender inequalities, and also the gender-blind scholarly approaches to it, this project aims to elucidate the gendered nature of NO and how Islamist women, who mostly support the AKP, become creative agents in its reproduction. The project will examine gendered aspects of neo-Ottomanist nostalgia and their sophisticated transmission in Islamist women’s periodicals in Turkey. Its novel insights will fill the critical lacuna of a gender study of NO and provide a more complex image of “Islamist women”. Its research methodology includes content analysis of articles containing Ottomanist nostalgia for discursive, visual, and paratextual reproductions; and interviews with their authors to reveal their perceptions of and nostalgia with Ottoman past and the process of their active involvement in NO’s popularization. The findings will link with Turkish studies, South-East European studies, and studies of gender, media, and cultural heritage; and reach to feminist groups, journalists, policy makers, teachers of religion and fashion lovers. As a researcher who has worked on the subjects of power and discourse, women and Islam in Turkey, and NO and nostalgia, I have essential knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for the project. It will be a unique career opportunity as it will equip me to take part in collaborative research projects and apply for tenured posts in EU. The supervisor and the hosting research centre offer the best possible interdisciplinary expertise and academic networks.