Sociology Assistant Professor Candidate Talk: Şehrazat G. Mart, Ph.D.

Dr. Mart writes: How do young people assess the worth of putting themselves at risk of state violence for the sake of democracy and social justice? This talk examines the case of the Boğaziçi (bo-ah-zi-chee) University student movement in Turkey that mobilized between 2021-2023 against increasing authoritarianism. Despite mobilizing side by side in response to the same political threats, Boğaziçi students split into two factions with distinct activism styles. One faction adopted a confrontational style, willing to risk severe consequences for social change. The other faction adopted a playful style, prioritizing safety and the expression of joy against oppression. I find that the Boğaziçi students grappled with the effectiveness and ethics of: (1) recruiting protest participants, (2) participant safety, (3) internal decision-making, and (4) cultivating a public image. I argue that how students navigated these dilemmas depended on their intersectional and intergenerational analyses of power, resulting in distinct activism styles and a fractured movement.