Pınar Selek
“Pınar Selek: The Most Eminent Scholar of Contemporary Sociology”
March 14, 2013

On March 13, 2013, the colloquium, “Thinking Contemporary Sociology: For Pınar Selek,” organized by Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MSFAU) grabbed great attention of many students and academicians. The conference started with the keynote address by the prominent French academic Sylvain Laurrens. He is a sociologist and historian and serves as the Social Sciences National Doctoral Jury President in France. The conference featured all-day presentations of various academicians from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul University, and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University as well as video presentations, installations, and theatrical performances.

In his talk titled “Is sociology which is autonomous in its investigations that apolitical?” Sylvain Laurrens (EHESS- Centre Simmel) brought into question the relationship between research and politics through the examples pointed by Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Laurrens emphasized the importance and necessity of the facts that political inclinations should not solely shape science and that social scientists should possess ethical values. He also indicated that sociologists should struggle for more autonomy and mentioned about repressions in the French academia.   

The chair of the Sociology Department of Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Nükhet Sirman, took up the issue of methodological approaches in sociological studies in her talk titled “Seeing the Invisible.” Sirman indicated that Selek investigated the complex web of interrelationships in her research: She analyzed the relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed and the conditions under which an oppressor became an oppressed. Sirman underlined the fact that Selek is a sociologist who could translate her research into action and explained how Selek’s research “Masks, Cavaliers, Gacis” evolved into the establishment of “Street Artists Atelier.” From the Department of Economics of İstanbul University, İzzettin Önder mentioned that as a sociologist, Pınar Selek makes a political economy analysis of the societal relations and attains to demonstrate the base on which the superstructure arises. Önder emphasized that Selek is a researcher who does not hide/manipulate her empirical material; rather she unfolds it with full reality. Additionally, Önder indicated that Selek exerted effort to correct the pathology of political decision-making, and because of this brave attitude she was exposed to state violence.

Sibel Yardımcı, a faculty member at MSFAU, started her talk with quotations from Judith Butler’s book “Precarious Life.” Yardımcı construed the law case of Pınar Selek through an analysis of the relationship amongst mourning, violence and politics. She told that Pınar Selek’s ability to cope with the fifteen years of incessant violence can be explained with the help of Butler’s thesis that mourning after violence might affect a new type of relationality. Yardımcı drew the attention to Pınar Selek’s two statements after learning the life-long imprisonment conviction: “I will not let my language become bitter” and “They will not manage to convert me into a miserable woman.” Yardımcı pointed out that through these statements Pınar demonstrated everybody the possibility of a life without deploying violence against violence and without choosing the emotional death despite the violence she has been through. Yardımcı drew the attention to the fact that Pınar’s attitude improved the mobility and relationality amongst us. The department chair at MSFAU, Ali Akay, defined Pınar Selek as a sociologist who has a love affair with her research topic. Akay stated that rather than making a sociological analysis of the society as a whole, Pınar makes an analysis of the socialabilities in the society: Pınar constructed her relationship with the societal groups that she has investigated through sharing the linguistic, tactile, visual and auditoria means and she maintains politics of friendship with them. And this made Selek the most eminent scholar of contemporary sociology. In reference to the concept of relationality that was elaborated by Sibel Yardımcı, Akay stated, “Relationality includes the attitudes of abandonment, attraction, and the mutual transformation and prerequisites the researcher to engage in a new language and attitude that the researcher does not have any belonging. This is only possible through a sociological approach that stipulates the transformation of a relationship into love.” Akay expressed that love is the new component of contemporary sociology and that Pınar Selek attains pluralization in language, relationship and her analysis through love.     

In addition to the presentations, the conference featured a documentary by the director Aykut Atasay titled “I am for Justice, I am in Solidarity with Pınar Selek” http://vimeo.com/18149402); videos of “Testimonies for Pınar Selek” prepared by the students of the Sociological Research Club at the MSFAU; and installations prepared for Pınar Selek by the students of the Department of Dance at the MSFAU. The conference closed on the performance of Esmeray’s play “Street Artists Atelier.” In her play, Esmeray explained how she participated in the “Street Artists Atelier” initiated by Pınar Selek and her later experiences through joyful anecdotes. Esmeray complemented the sociological analyses made around the works of Pınar Selek through the narratives of everyday life, which led to emotional moments amongst the participants at the conference. 

Translated from http://www.skyturk360.com/haberdetay.asp?id=21991 by Zulal Fazlıoğlu Akın
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