When Queer Activists Face the Judge: Legalities of the State and Queer Justice in the Turkish Courtrooms

Speaker
Berkant Caglar
Affiliation
PhD candidate, Anthropology & Fellow, ICGC
Date and Time:
-
Location:

537 Heller Hall

Abstract: What happens when LGBTI+ identities are neither included nor excluded in law, as is the case with the Turkish state? Turkey as a predominantly Muslim society complicates this question, as there are no legal prohibitions on homosexual activity. The state refrains from governance through legal criminalization, keeping its licit formation as vague as possible. However, during my ethnographic fieldwork, I was confounded by the abundance of trials wherein more than two hundred queer activists were summoned to the court for violating the law of meeting and demonstrations. Considering the extralegal power of the authoritarian state and its ability to detain other political prisoners for years, despite rulings by international courts, I surprisingly observed that the state’s prosecutors consistently lost legal cases against queer defendants. Rather than answering how lawyers accomplish this success in the courtrooms, my presentation argues that limiting the public visibility of queer dissent and its rightful activism emerge as an important political problem for the Turkish state. These trials emerge not only intimidating legal rituals but also as places where the state force activists to officially come out. On the contrary of taking Islam as the source of queer oppression in the Middle East, my broader research examines longstanding secular, legal infrastructures and how an authoritarian state is hindered by its own legality.

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About the Speaker

Berkant Caglar is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of  Minnesota, Twin Cities. His dissertation research is ethnographically documenting judicial  experiences of LGBTI+ individuals within Turkish courtrooms. Intrigued by the unique challenges faced by queer individuals in their interactions with the state’s judiciary, his research critically examines the legal activism of queer pro-bono lawyers. It attends to a wide variety of litigation processes for cases involving queer claimants and defendants. In addition to this  dissertation research, his ongoing minor project focuses on denialism as a governing category in post-genocidal Turkey, along with focusing on temporality and futurity. He is the recipient of  numerous grants and fellowships. Aside from his affiliation with ICGC, he was a resident fellow  at the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium

The Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium series offers informal lectures and discussions on current research projects by ICGC Scholars, affiliated faculty, visiting scholars, and practitioners. These events are open to the public. Guests are welcome to bring their lunches and eat during the sessions.