Short Bio

Victoria M Basham is a Professor of International Relations at Cardiff University in Wales, UK. Her research examines the gendered, racialized and socio-economic drivers and effects of militarism, war, and political violence. Victoria has particular expertise on the gendered and racialized culture British armed forces, which she has studied for just over two decades. She is the Editor-in-chief and co-founder of the journal, Critical Military Studies and co-edits the Edinburgh University Press book series, Advances in Critical Military Studies.

Abstract

Researching Gender and Military Power: Limits and Opportunities

What makes women fighters less visible? What makes them hyper-visible? How does visibility shape our understanding of women as fighters across time and space? In this paper, I draw on insights and reflections from two decades of research on the British military to explore the limits and opportunities when researching gender and military power. More specifically, I examine how the circulation of certain discourses in military settings - myths about women and their proximity to violence, sexual harassment and discrimination, gender blindness, military loyalty, and methodological 'robustness' - limit opportunities to listen to women engaged in fighting roles. Through these reflections, I try to identify some of the insights for our wider understanding of women fighters but also some of the limitations of theory-building from state-centric and Anglo-centric case studies for feminist analysis.

Short Bio 

Drivalda Delia is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Regensburg and researcher in the project “Women’s and gender history in Southeast Europe in the 20th Century: oral history, ethnographic and biographical approaches as a way to advance intersectionality” at the University of Graz. She holds a master’s degree in East European Studies from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (LMU) and a bachelor degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Abstract

Tracing Silenced Participation of Women in Nation and State-building Processes in Kosovo during the 90s and early 2000s

The early 90s witnessed the disintegration of the Federation of Yugoslavia, giving rise to resurgent national inquiries and conflicting statehood initiatives. In its bid to control Kosovo, the Serbian regime, implemented draconian measures, suppressing the political, economic, and human rights of the majority Albanian population.

Responding to Serbia’s oppression, the Albanians of Kosovo initiated a parallel state, demanding separation from Serbia, albeit with divergent perspectives within political factions. Despite women playing pivotal roles in these processes, predominant narratives in academic and public discourse have overlooked their participation and contributions in significant ways, painting a distorted picture of a 'womenless' Kosovo in the 90s. This discrepancy is particularly evident in the scant attention given to women within the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a focal point of my PhD dissertation.

In this presentation I will discuss the silence surrounding women's involvement in armed resistance during this period in academic discussions, including feminist literature, and explore the factors contributing to this phenomenon. Additionally, I will outline some of the challenges, including ethical considerations, encountered in researching women's roles in the KLA and explore the efficacy of biographical interviews as a method to unveil the stories of these women and navigate a sensitive and volatile context. My concluding reflections will touch upon my positionality as a researcher and the intersectional challenges faced as an early career Albanian woman researcher conducting this study within a German higher education institution.

Short Bio 

Elke Shoghig Hartmann holds the chair of Ottoman Studies and Turcology at Free University Berlin since 2021. Prior to that she served as visiting professor or researcher at institutes of Turcology (Hamburg), Oriental Studies (Bamberg), Russian-Asian Studies (LMU Munich), History (FU Berlin) and Islamic Studies (FU Berlin). Her research interests include Ottoman military history, Ottoman reform and modernisation, Ottoman autobiographical accounts, Ottoman Armenians.

Abstract 

During the second half of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire - as all other continental European states - gradually introduced military conscription thus fundamentally altering the nature of military service as well as the relation between military and civilians. This talk sketches how the introduction of compulsory military service was achieved in the modernising Ottoman State and how the various segments of the Ottoman population were affected by this measure and how they reacted to it.

Short Bio

After a BA in Translation Studies at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, she completed her Master's degree at Jacobs University in Bremen in 2008 (Intercultural Humanities). She obtained her PhD in Cultural Studies at Justus Liebig University in Giessen in 2019 with a thesis on Ahmet Ümit ("Nation and Identity in Turkish Crime Literature: Reading Ahmet Ümit's novels as a medium of ideological negotiation"). She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the DFG Research Unit "Ambiguity and Distinction. Historical and Cultural Dynamics" at the Technical University of Dortmund and as a lecturer with tenure in Turkish Studies at the University of Duisburg Essen.

Abstract 

"The meaning(-lessness) of female fighters in the current Islamic-historical novel"

Since the 2000s, narratives of conquest, i.e. stories that deal with the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottomans in 1453, have been on the rise in contemporary Islamic culture and literature in Turkey. In popular television series, films and historical novels, the siege and Islamisation of the city of Constantinople is often portrayed as one of the most glorious historical events of the Ottoman past. These cultural and literary products often construct the past with neo-Ottoman nostalgia and propagate the populist Islamisation discourses of the AKP (Justice and Development Party). Although most Ottoman characters in such historical novels are male and fight as pious, brave Muslim soldiers on the battlefields to conquer the city, there are also a few female soldiers who play an important role in the narrative. This lecture will focus on the ideological and political functions of a fictional female soldier, Elif, in Ayşe Kara's İstanbul'un Çağrısı (2018). Ayşe Kara is an award-winning author who is popular in Islamist circles and whose novels are among the most important examples of contemporary Islamic historical fiction. This lecture will provide a brief historical overview of the genre and then discuss the character construction and transformation of the soldier Elif, particularly in comparison to other female characters in the novel, such as the royal female characters in the Byzantine Empire. In doing so, the lecture will emphasise the patriarchal, populist and Islamist construction of the Ottoman past in this sub-genre.

“Die Bedeutung(-slosigkeit) von Kämpferinnen im aktuellen islamisch-historischen Roman”

Seit den 2000er Jahren sind Eroberungserzählungen, d.h. Erzählungen, die sich mit der Eroberung Istanbuls durch die Osmanen im Jahr 1453 beschäftigen, im zeitgenössischen islamischen Kultur- und Literaturbereich in der Türkei auf dem Vormarsch. In populären Fernsehserien, Filmen und historischen Romanen wird die Belagerung und Islamisierung der Stadt Konstantinopel oft als eines der glorreichsten historischen Ereignisse der osmanischen Vergangenheit dargestellt. Diese kulturellen und literarischen Produkte konstruieren die Vergangenheit oft mit neo-osmanischer Nostalgie und verbreiten die populistischen Islamisierungsdiskurse der AKP (Partei für Gerechtigkeit und Entwicklung). Obwohl die meisten osmanischen Charaktere in solchen historischen Romanen männlich sind und als fromme, tapfere muslimische Soldaten auf den Schlachtfeldern kämpfen, um die Stadt zu erobern, gibt es auch einige wenige weibliche Soldaten, die eine wichtige Rolle in der Erzählung spielen. In diesem Vortrag geht es um die ideologischen und politischen Funktionen einer fiktiven Soldatin, Elif, in Ayşe Karas İstanbul'un Çağrısı (2018). Ayşe Kara ist eine preisgekrönte und in islamistischen Kreisen beliebte Autorin, deren Romane zu den wichtigsten Beispielen der zeitgenössischen islamischen historischen Fiktion gehören. In diesem Vortrag wird ein kurzer historischer Überblick über das Genre gegeben und anschließend die Charakterkonstruktion und -veränderung der Soldatin Elif erörtert, insbesondere im Vergleich zu anderen weiblichen Figuren im Roman, wie z. B. den königlichen Frauenfiguren im Byzantinischen Reich. Dabei wird der Vortrag die patriarchalische, populistische und islamistische Konstruktion der osmanischen Vergangenheit in diesem Sub-genre hervorheben.