On April 29, I participated in the conference ‘Remembering Possibility: A Symposium Honoring
Marianne Hirsch’ and shared SU Gender’s decade-long, fruitful collaboration with
Marianne Hirsch, which include the Women Mobilizing Memory
conferences in Istanbul (2014) and New York (2015), the co-edited volume
Women Mobilizing Memory, the exhibit
Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing (with Işın Önol), the
Curious Steps Walk of Beyoğlu (and its sister-walk in Harlem), as well as
Marianne Hirsch’s ongoing contributions to SU Gender’s International Advisory Board.
Marianne Hirsch’s pathbreaking scholarship, particularly her conceptualization of postmemory, has inspired several generations of scholars at Sabancı University, including (Cultural Studies MA, Dilara Çalışkan’s recent work on
queer postmemory). With deep gratitude to
Marianne Hirsch for all that she has been and has done for feminist scholarship in general and SU Gender in particular, we wish her blissful and fruitful retirement years.
You can view ‘Remembering Possibility: A Symposium Honoring
Marianne Hirsch’ (including my talk titled ‘Feminist+ Solidarity’) at
this link
23 March 2022
Speakers : Arlene Avakian, Cynthia Enloe, Deniz Kandiyoti, Shaharzad Akbar
Discussant: Ayşe Gül Altınay
“We take feminist+ solidarity to be a crucial and precious path for the future of not just politics but of life on this planet. “Dünya yerinden oynar kadınlar özgür olsa / the world would rock and roll over if women were free“ has been a popular chant in feminist protests in Turkey in the past decade. Indeed, feminists globally have been rocking and rolling the world over and helping it settle into its wisest and most creative senses for centuries…
The + is a reminder of the many other frameworks of analysis and action that have helped feminism grow: The anti-slavery, anti-colonial, anti-war, anti-capitalist, human rights, minority rights, economic justice and racial justice movements that have accompanied feminisms globally; the LGBTIQ+ movements that have deepened our understanding of the workings of gender and sexuality; and the ecological and climate justice movements that remind us of our interconnectedness not just with each other but with all species, with all life, to name a few.
The + is a reminder of how feminisms have been transformed by these other struggles towards an open-ended vision that serves all life. It’s possible to view the + also as a reminder of our beautiful diversity as the subjects of feminism, of the intersectionality and interconnectedness that was always there, but not always acknowledged.
As Dina Georgis reminds us ‘there is always
a better story than our better story’. The + is an invitation for opening ourselves up, personally and collectively, to
a better story of feminism, one that is shaped by curiosity, openness, creativity and modesty.
In other words, feminist+ solidarity is an invitation to co-imagine an even better story of feminist solidarity.”
You can view ‘Feminist+ Solidarity Roundtable’ at this link
Ayşe Gül Altınay 
Remembering Possibility: A Symposium Honoring Marianne Hirsch