toward an anthropology of polarized lives
My book project, The Edge of Generosity: Conservative Women and Bureaucratized Islamic Education in Polarized Turkey, investigates the co-production of oppression and generosity, both rooted in religious sensibilities (dini hassasiyet). Drawing on ethnographic and archival fieldwork in urban Ankara, I explore how Turkish conservative Sunni Muslim women (muhafazakâr) form communities through the mediation of state women preachers (Diyanet kadın vaizleri), who serve as both Islamic educators and public servants in a contentious social landscape. My research reveals that these preachers promote generosity as a religious virtue to an audience often inclined to intervene in others’ religious lives, with these interventions sometimes verging on oppression.
In my research, generosity is not merely a notion of virtue ethics but a dynamic, context-dependent practice whose terms for enactment are shaped by state-sponsored bureaucratized Islamic education. As an analytic, it offers a lens to explore how the limits of understanding emerge and operate in people's everyday lives. Concretely, I approach generosity as encapsulating both moral and epistemic reasoning that shapes how individuals navigate social interactions and form political judgments. By examining how generosity operates in a polarized society, I explore its role in mediating fundamental disagreements, managing interpersonal conflicts, and justifying inclusion and exclusion in social and political life. This approach highlights the nuanced ways in which generosity informs how people (fail to) reconcile divergent views on governance, religious tradition, and collective identity. My work demonstrates how this conditional generosity is central to Turkish conservative women’s worldview and politics, shaping the polarized landscape they share with social others.
My research advances political anthropology by engaging with and challenging the anthropologies of the state and Islam. First, I extend the anthropological debates on domination and consent by examining for whom state involvement can be perceived as genuine “service (hizmet).” While recognizing the authoritarian nature of the Turkish state and its instrumental use of Islam to divide its population, I employ semiotic anthropology and feminist analysis to foreground conservative women’s positions within contested interpretations of the regime and Islam. Second, by emphasizing the partial and situated nature of communities formed through bureaucratized Islamic education, I offer a fresh take on ethical self-formation, a central notion of the anthropology of Islam, as a social process that may fuel partisan politics, structural violence, and authoritarianism in a Muslim-majority society. With these innovations, I theorize the limits of understanding in polarized societies and their implications for political life, particularly regarding women’s experiences.
Drafts of my recent work are available for presentation and discussion:
“Fatwa as Indifferent Guidance” analyzes how Islamic advice (fetva or dini soruları) is delivered through state women preachers’ hotline and in-person consultations. I demonstrate how these preachers, as part of a bureaucratic system, collectively guide conservative women to avoid unsolicited advice—which is often oppressive—to other Muslims and shift the focus of intervention to the self.
“Saving Our Children from K-Pop” explores the interactional creation of solidarity via state women preachers' sermon practices that respond to conservative Muslim women's "religious needs (dini ihtiyaç)." It challenges the existing literature's characterization of the "pedagogical state" as an ideological machinery merely imposing a homogenizing ideological agenda.
“Can Prayers be Medicine?” argues that Turkish conservative Muslim women, in their struggle to improve their dua practices under state women preachers' guidance, participate in the collective project of constituting a social world that conserves the possibility of living a better life as a Muslim.
“Veiling Beyond Human Semiotics” delves into conservative Muslim women's internal debates over whether and how to intervene in other women’s veiling practices, particularly concerning daughters. I trace how Turkish state women preachers' suggestions to stop interpreting one's veiling status as a sign creates an unexpected space of generosity.
I am developing some of these drafts into articles for peer-reviewed journals.
In my research, generosity is not merely a notion of virtue ethics but a dynamic, context-dependent practice whose terms for enactment are shaped by state-sponsored bureaucratized Islamic education. As an analytic, it offers a lens to explore how the limits of understanding emerge and operate in people's everyday lives. Concretely, I approach generosity as encapsulating both moral and epistemic reasoning that shapes how individuals navigate social interactions and form political judgments. By examining how generosity operates in a polarized society, I explore its role in mediating fundamental disagreements, managing interpersonal conflicts, and justifying inclusion and exclusion in social and political life. This approach highlights the nuanced ways in which generosity informs how people (fail to) reconcile divergent views on governance, religious tradition, and collective identity. My work demonstrates how this conditional generosity is central to Turkish conservative women’s worldview and politics, shaping the polarized landscape they share with social others.
My research advances political anthropology by engaging with and challenging the anthropologies of the state and Islam. First, I extend the anthropological debates on domination and consent by examining for whom state involvement can be perceived as genuine “service (hizmet).” While recognizing the authoritarian nature of the Turkish state and its instrumental use of Islam to divide its population, I employ semiotic anthropology and feminist analysis to foreground conservative women’s positions within contested interpretations of the regime and Islam. Second, by emphasizing the partial and situated nature of communities formed through bureaucratized Islamic education, I offer a fresh take on ethical self-formation, a central notion of the anthropology of Islam, as a social process that may fuel partisan politics, structural violence, and authoritarianism in a Muslim-majority society. With these innovations, I theorize the limits of understanding in polarized societies and their implications for political life, particularly regarding women’s experiences.
Drafts of my recent work are available for presentation and discussion:
“Fatwa as Indifferent Guidance” analyzes how Islamic advice (fetva or dini soruları) is delivered through state women preachers’ hotline and in-person consultations. I demonstrate how these preachers, as part of a bureaucratic system, collectively guide conservative women to avoid unsolicited advice—which is often oppressive—to other Muslims and shift the focus of intervention to the self.
“Saving Our Children from K-Pop” explores the interactional creation of solidarity via state women preachers' sermon practices that respond to conservative Muslim women's "religious needs (dini ihtiyaç)." It challenges the existing literature's characterization of the "pedagogical state" as an ideological machinery merely imposing a homogenizing ideological agenda.
“Can Prayers be Medicine?” argues that Turkish conservative Muslim women, in their struggle to improve their dua practices under state women preachers' guidance, participate in the collective project of constituting a social world that conserves the possibility of living a better life as a Muslim.
“Veiling Beyond Human Semiotics” delves into conservative Muslim women's internal debates over whether and how to intervene in other women’s veiling practices, particularly concerning daughters. I trace how Turkish state women preachers' suggestions to stop interpreting one's veiling status as a sign creates an unexpected space of generosity.
I am developing some of these drafts into articles for peer-reviewed journals.
