Building Free Life: The Theology of Democratic Modernity
Channel: Edinburgh Anarchist Feminist Bookfair
Date: 2021-05-30

My talk will be based on the book Building Free Life: Dialogues with Abdullah Öcalan. I will read sections from it and explain my argument there which proposes that Abdullah Öcalan develops a decolonial metaphysic of the human, freedom and truth that gives meaning and orientation to the freedom struggle of the Kurds. This metaphysics challenges the metaphysics of capitalist modernity in fundamental ways and replaces its constitutive institutions family, nation and property with friendship, mobility and gift giving.

I received my Ph.D. in 2005 from the sociology department at Indiana University Bloomington. Between 2005 and 2018, I worked as an Assistant Professor at Boğaziçi University, Department of Sociology. Between 2018 and 2020 I was affiliated with the Transregionale Studien in Berlin as an Academy in Exile and IIE-Scholar Rescue Fund fellow. Currently, I am receiving a fellowship from the Gerda Henkel Foundation Patrimonies program. My work concerns political imaginaries, gendered subjectivities and state violence in Kurdistan. My most recent articles appeared in the journals South Atlantic Quarterly, History of the Present and Differences. I also worked as a columnist in the journal Nokta and the newspaper Özgür Gündem and my opinion pieces appeared in venues such as Bianet, T24, Roar Magazine and Jadaliyya. I am a member of Women for Peace and Academics for Peace. I am currently finishing my first book manuscript with the working title Mother, Politician and Guerilla: The Emergence of A New Political Cosmology in Kurdistan Through Women's Bodies and Speech.

Personal Website: www.nazanustundag.com