Feminist and Gender Studies Scholars in Exile

A Critical Reflection on Neoliberal and Eurocentric Academia in Germany

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18452/27996

Keywords:

Authoritarianism, Neoliberalism, Higher Education, Gender Studies, Exile, Turkey, Germany

Abstract

The year 2015 was a turning point in the history of migration to Europe due to the so-called migration crisis that emerged under the influence of wars, war like-conflicts, and anti-democratic authoritarian regimes in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. These historical phenomena led to unprecedented threats to human rights, including academic freedom and freedom of expression, which resulted in the fleeing of scholars to countries in the Global North and the West, with their liberal regimes. The forced migration besetting intellectuals also included representatives of feminist and gender studies, who were targeted by authoritarian regimes due to the latter’s symptomatic anti-gender policies and discourses. In the general context of forced intellectual migration from the Global South and the East to the Global North and the West, this paper focuses on scholars in the field of feminist and queer studies fleeing from Turkey to Germany after 2015. Special emphasis is placed on their experiences of both risk and inclusion at German universities following the scholarships awarded by academic-humanitarianism actors. The aim of the paper is to shed light on gendered and epistemic inequalities that are experienced by scholars in the wake of the neoliberal higher education system.

Author Biographies

Betül Yarar, Helmut Schmidt Universität Hamburg

Betül Yarar is a professor of sociology and cultural studies. Presently she is working as a senior research and as a principle investigator of a research entitled “The inclusion of refugee-exile scientists/scholars into academic labor markets -support networks and biographical experiences in a three-country comparison” (2021-2022) at Helmut-Schmidt University, Hamburg. Before she was working at the University of Bremen as a principle researcher together with Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakarşoğlu within the context of a project entitled "In-formal Opportunities and Restrictions in German Universities Reflected in the Experiences of Exiled Scholars", which was funded by Volkswagen Stiftung. In respect to these works of her, she has organized various academic events, present papers at international academic conferences and puslished articles on forced migration of exile scholars and their inclustion into higher education. She has also worked extensively on gender issues and body politics particularly within the context of Turkey. One of her recent publications on the subject is “Neoliberal-neoconservative feminism(s) in Turkey: Politics of female bodies/subjectivities and the Justice and Development Party’s turn to authoritarianism” published in New Perspectives on Turkey, (63, 113-137, 2020). 

Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Universität Bremen

Yasemin Karakaşoğlu is a professor of intercultural education and the head of the research group on Intercultural Education at the Department for the Science in Education/University of Bremen (Germany). Having studied in Hamburg and Ankara she holds a Masters degree in Turcology, German Literature and Political Science from the University of Hamburg and a PhD in Education from the University of Duisburg/Essen. From 2011 to 2017 she has been VP for International and Diversity of the University of Bremen. Amongst several other projects she has, together with Prof. Dr. Betül Yarar, conducted the research project entitled "In-formal Opportunities and Restrictions in German Universities Reflected in the Experiences of Exiled Scholars" (2019-2021), funded by Volkswagen Stiftung. She is member of the Board of Governors of the DAAD and has been (2018-2021) head of the “Council on Migration”, an NGO of migration researchers and academics from various disciplines. She was influential in developing and implementing the intercultural, inclusive and language sensitive teacher training university program, current research interests are: Transnationalism and Teacher Professionalization, Intercultural Education and Diversity Management in Schools and Universities, Islam as a Factor of Multiculturalism in German schools.

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Published

2024-01-10

How to Cite

Yarar, B., & Karakaşoğlu, Y. (2024). Feminist and Gender Studies Scholars in Exile: A Critical Reflection on Neoliberal and Eurocentric Academia in Germany. Berliner Blätter, 88, 95–109. https://doi.org/10.18452/27996

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