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Research Interests
Modernity is often regarded as a particular condition, or symptom,
of cultural and political development centered on Western European and American experience. But
it is also profoundly determined by context, by intersecting geographies, by the places, spaces,
and people through which it manifests. Seeking the means to qualify and question monolithic
understandings of the modern, my research focuses on two ‘non-Western?and predominantly Muslim
urban contexts to reveal that modernity is a highly contested category, more often than not
concealing multiple, competing projects and definitions of progress, national identity,
secularism/religion, morality, class and/or gender. Foregrounding the significance of spatial
approaches, my work examines geographically specific articulations of modernity in Istanbul
and Jakarta with a particular focus on the cultural politics of the everyday. The project of
theorizing what I term ‘situated modernities?emerged from the experience of living through
the vast changes in urban space and life in Istanbul in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Shopping malls
and tesettür chic. This ongoing research
project focuses on the relatively new “constructed?spaces of shopping malls and emerging tesettür
(Islamic mode of women’s dress) department stores in Istanbul and Jakarta. Through a methodology
that might be called “spatial ethnography? this research uncovers the construction of ‘gendered?
‘classed?and ‘Islamic?modernities and the formation of subjectivity and agency in the face of
often enforced state and Islamist meta-projects. I aim to further elucidate how competing ‘modern?
gender and middle class identities, secular and Islamic both are formed. “Tesettür chic?poses
significant questions for neoliberal Muslim communities as this new fashion tests professed Islamic
ideals of modesty, morality, egalitarianism and communitarianism.
Islamic Women’s NGOs. Faith-based
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Mazlum-Der,
Özgür-Der and Ak-Der,
concerned with Muslim women’s rights (and particularly
veiling) in Istanbul, constitute the focus of my other
research. I am interested in the spatial implications of the
strategies these NGOs develop to make political claims that
challenge the secularist state as they appropriate elements
from discourses of neoliberalism, human rights, civil
liberties, and Islamism. Thematically, these two research
projects address current debates on secularism,
(neo)liberalism, democracy, modernity and globalization. I am
currently involved with a UNC-Duke joint project on
"Muslim Modernities in Europe" (sponsored by the Center for Slavic,
Eurasian and East European Studies at UNC).
Selected Recent Publications
Banu Gökariksel and
Katharyne Mitchell, (2005) "Veiling, Secularism and the
Neoliberal Subject: National Narratives and Supranational
Desires in Turkey and France¡±, Global Networks, 5, 2, 147-165.
(http://www.globalnetworksjournal.com/abstract.asp?iid=2&aid=112&vid=5)
"Feminist Geographies of Veiling: Gender,
Class and Religion in the Making of Modern Spaces and Subjects
in Istanbul", in Karen Morin and Jeanne Kay Guelke eds Women,
Religion, and Space (2007). Syracuse: Syracuse University
Press. (http://www.syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/spring-2007/women-religion-space.html)
Work in
progress
"Dress as Embodied Spatial Practice: Women's Experiences of the New Islamic Fashion in Istanbul", submitted to Nadia Yaqub ed. Arab and Middle Eastern Dress in a Transnational World (Syracuse University Press)
"Moral geographies of gender: 'mall butterflies'" (under
revision for the Annals of the Association of American
Geographers)
"Towards new transnational geographies of Islamism,
capitalism and identity: The veiling-fashion industry in
Turkey¡± (submitted to Area, 06/22/07)
Courses
Gender in the Middle East (Spring 2005, Fall 2006, Fall
2007)
Space, Power and Identity in the Middle East (First Year
Seminar, Fall 2006)
Global Issues (Fall 2007)
Social Geography (Fall 2004, Fall 2005)
People and Places (Spring 2004, Fall 2004)
Call for
Paper
National
Science Foundation
Grant |
