Professor Niharika Banerjea
Niharika Banerjea is Professor at the O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat. Her research and teaching interests and commitments are in the areas of gender-sexuality studies, queer studies, social theory, transnational feminisms, queer feminist and collaborative methodologies. Niharika identifies as an academic-activist, to critically address familiar binaries between academia and activism – in classrooms, activist spaces, and writing practices. Across all these sites, along with her co-thinkers, co-writers and co-workers, Niharika tries to make ‘theory’ relevant to interrogate everyday hegemonic relations and self-referential understandings of ‘lived experiences’. At the same time, she invests in bringing the complexes of lived experiences to interrogate familiar theoretical endeavours. Niharika identifies as queer, and this identification includes an assemblage of socio-political histories of varied journeys rather than an already arrived moment.
Dr Sita Balani
Dr Sita Balani is a fellow of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences and Senior Lecturer in English at Queen Mary University of London. She has published in Vice, Tribune, the White Review, Novara, Salvage, Art Review, Ceasefire, Five Dials, Wasafiri, and Open Democracy. Her first book Deadly and Slick: Sexual Modernity and the Making of Race was published by Verso in 2023.
Creativity in Flux
As part of the 2024 Lesbian Lives conference, we have invited a group of Turkish queer feminist publishers, editors, and art critics to lead a discussion on queer feminist creative work, across activist and institutional realms.
Join us for this plenary roundtable on Creativity in Flux which will close the conference.
In our roundtable discussion, we delve into the intricate landscape of queer feminist creative work, traversing both independent and institutional realms amidst escalating political and social tensions. Seçil Epik, Şafak Şule Kemancı, Büşra Mutlu, and Fisun Yalçınkaya will discuss challenges and opportunities in the creative field, navigating diverse strategies, unexpected encounters, and delightful surprises along the way.
About the speakers:
Seçil Epik is an Istanbul-based publisher, editor, and art critic. She is the editor of the online contemporary art magazine Argonotlar (argonotlar.com) and co-founder of queer feminist publishing house Umami Kitap.
Şafak Şule Kemancı is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Istanbul. They are a part of the queer activist/artist run curatorial team called Border/less since 2019.
Büşra Mutlu, born in Istanbul and currently based in Berlin, is a publisher and an art professional. With a background in communication and public programming within museum contexts from 2017-2023, Büşra co-founded the queer feminist publishing house Umami Kitap in 2020. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in English Studies at Freie Universität Berlin.
Fisun Yalçınkaya, born in Istanbul, worked as a journalist for daily and weekly newspapers from 2009 to 2019. Currently an art writer. Since August 2023, Fisun has been organizing monthly independent workshops for women, focusing on contemporary art and creative protests.