🔥The 9th Round of Easy Loan, Earn $40 Reward is in progress❗️ ⏰ Promotion Period: January 15th - Feburary 15th, 2025 👉 Register now and check more details at gate.io/campaigns/358

Amid so much being done to distract, deter, and demoralize people of MENA origin in the US, four intrepid PhD students joined my 5:00pm Zoom MENA solidarity writing session. We’ve been going for over 100 weeks. If you know anyone who could benefit, please send them my way!

If you are trying to figure out how best to support MENA PhD students in an increasingly precarious US environment, this is something you can do.

“The electoral playing field has increasingly been tilted in the ruling AKP's favor in terms of media coverage, judicial ruling, and other factors, but this takes the main competitor off that field.” With my comments on İmamoğlu, Turkey's "turning point" courthousenews.com/istanbul-mayor…

The AKP resorts to vilification tactics used in Gezi. Here, "blaming" involves fabricated claims of protester violence and "immorality." In Gezi, it was "drinking in a mosque." The *imam* debunked that claim. My "naming, blaming, framing" take: pomeps.org/adding-insult-…

I and Gönül Tol spoke with Amberin Zaman about Turkey's mass protests, the government's power grabs that sparked them, and factors to watch for as they transform. al-monitor.com/podcasts/what-…

Excellent Turkey piece by Fariba Nawa. Comments from me, Ceylan Akça, Gönül Tol. I contrast the protests with Gezi: “It makes tremendous sense that people, especially youth, are angrier. The political and economic climates are exponentially worse.” csmonitor.com/World/Middle-E…

Jennifer Hattam Jennifer Hattam is an outstanding journalist and writer. She's particularly good at keeping a finger on the cultural pulse of her environments. And communicating why cultural issues/events/voices matter to varied audiences. 10/10 would recruit!

Personal news that’s tough to share, but that I hope can help others. Yesterday my tenure case was denied. I don’t know where I’ll land, but I’ll continue hosting my MENA writing solidarity group as long as I can. If you know anyone who could benefit, please send them my way.

Back in Istanbul for a summer of figuring out next steps, writing a lot, watching the US go down TR's path. Good news to share this time. My article on cooking shows as conservative gender edutainment was accepted at Politics & Gender. MasterChef Türkiye başlasın artık!

For a news break, I watch cooking shows. I was a pastry chef before grad school. And it's how I learned Turkish. But politics is everywhere, as I argue in a forthcoming Politics & Gender article. Here, a contestant calls wine "red grape juice" because alcohol terms are banned.

To make sense of what is unfolding in the Middle East, join us on Friday morning at IPC where will be hosting Paul Salem in conversation with Soli Özel Paul Salem soli ozel

Folks in Istanbul please join me Thursday July 10 Istanbul Policy Center. I'll be presenting findings from our new dataset of over 11,000 AKP YouTube videos. In two projects with Jonas Bergan Draege, our multi-method analysis examines instrumentalizations of history and foreign threat production

Tomorrow begins Week 119 of my Zoom writing group. What are we? *Students and scholars of all levels *Started 2023 post-earthquake, expanded for those from or working on MENA *8-10 sessions/week, join any/all *Solidarity and structure for writing Interested? Please reach out!

With Harun Ercan, we argued the AKP initially didn't risk mass protest by arresting CHP mayors. We argued permissive prejudice allowed such arrests against pro-Kurdish mayors. We suggested after 2023 elections, CHP might face tactics honed against Kurds tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

If you’re a PhD student from or working on MENA, or if you are advising MENA students who could benefit from a supportive online working space, please reach out. We’ve had dozens of PhD students from Turkey alone finish their dissertations, apply for grants, write articles.

There's lots going on in Turkey's political scene right now. I'm aiming to provide insights with a new dataset on AKP audiovisual strategies. Please join me Istanbul Policy Center this Thursday at 11am. Honored to be hosted by Senem Aydın-Düzgit. Register here: forms.gle/6BRkXR3439LKV7…