2026/07/06 by Nazlı Konya · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Islamic Studies and History #Posthumanist Ethics and Activism #Turkey's Politics and Society
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1537592726105131
openalex publication_date 2026/07/06 · openalex created_date 2026/07/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/07
Amid global assaults on higher education, this reflection analyzes a video performance created by Boğaziçi University (Istanbul, Turkey) students during widespread protests against President Erdoğan’s appointment of a loyalist as rector in 2021. Although it disputes the appointment and the subsequent crackdown on campus protest, the performance more directly responds to the punitive and vilifying reaction of the university administration and the government to a campus exhibition that included a controversial artwork juxtaposing Islamic, mythological, and LGBTQ+ imagery. In the video, a small group of pious Muslim and nonpious students share their divergent views on the artwork while presenting a unified voice against the defamatory campaign targeting their peers. Drawing on democratic theoretical accounts of Aristotelian political friendship, I interpret the performance as an experiment in mutual trust and confidence countering Erdoğan’s tyrannical rule, which thrives on distrust and apathy among citizens, as a form of concerted action that finds its strength in difference and disagreement, and as a model for preserving the university as a site where public issues can be debated openly. Envisioning a democratic life grounded in political friendship, the performance, I argue, reasserts universities’ role as laboratories of democracy, preparing students for collective deliberation, negotiation, and reflective judgment.