KEYMAN MODERN TURKISH STUDIES PROGRAM

The Politics of Stigmatization and Human Insecurities in Hybrid Regimes

Actors, Mechanisms, and Responses

The Keyman Modern Turkish Studies at Northwestern University and the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign invites applications to the workshop "Politics of Stigmatization and Human Insecurities in Hybrid Regimes: Actors, Mechanisms, and Responses".

Over the past decade, scholars have examined various institutions and processes that have contributed to the formation of hybrid regimes. In most cases, elected rulers become autocrats by weakening the media and civil society, inflaming social tensions, smearing opponents, and gradually destroying long-standing institutions while preserving some democratic practices. Looking beyond institutions, this workshop offers a platform for researchers from various fields to revisit hybrid regimes through the lenses of stigmatization, insecurities, and potential counterstrategies. Stigmas, profoundly discrediting attributes, have taken new forms and are assigned to various social identities rooted in race, gender, religion, or ethnicity and help majorities feel normal, authentic, or non-deviant. "Security" is usually used to describe states and countries, but 6 out of 7 people around the world are plagued by a sense of insecurity due to an array of factors such as criminalization, violent conflicts, health system failures, and more. Hybrid regimes, armed with new surveillance technologies and autocratic institutions, create and exploit new forms of insecurity targeting specific groups and identities.

The workshop, among others, strives to address questions such as when, why, and how stigmas are produced and deployed politically. What are the critical areas where insecurities shape individuals' or communities' political and social experiences? What technologies, discourses, or mechanisms contribute to human insecurity? How can stigmas or human insecurities pave the way for new forms of marginalization, resistance, and democratic responses?

We welcome comparative and conceptual/theoretical papers from different perspectives in areas including, but not limited to, the following:

• Agents: How can we identify and counter state and non-state agents responsible for propagating stigmatization and insecurity?
• Mechanisms: What means and venues are used to perpetuate stigmatization and human insecurities, such as discursive frames, media, disinformation campaigns, legal-political narratives, and social polarization, and help the incumbents stay resilient politically?
• Impact on Communities: What are some socio-economic, psychological, and political consequences of stigmatization and insecurities of targeted groups and communities?
• Resistance and Response: How do stigmatized groups' experiences, perceptions, and responses shape their resistance strategies? How can we reframe our understanding of protection and security? How can we better capture the risks and insecurities of stigmatized groups by modifying current approaches to security with new conceptualizations and methods?
• Data Sharing and Information Production: Given that hybrid regimes maintain a monopoly over information production and dissemination, what contemporary and alternative qualitative and quantitative research, data, and statistics can be used to strengthen marginalized groups and promote democratic practices? What scholarly or public data-sharing platforms can be developed to challenge monopolies over knowledge and data?

Here are some examples of the groups or topics that the papers may address: Marginalized groups such as migrants, refugees, women, and LGBTQ+, indigenous or minority groups, and theoretical analyses of stigmatization, human security, and resistance. Other topics include digital authoritarianism, neoliberal developmentalism and environmental justice, resistance strategies in hybrid regimes, diasporic support for or resistance to authoritarian regimes, and dehumanizing and delegitimizing discourses.

 

Workshop Dates: April 8–9, 2024

Organizers and Location:

This workshop is organized by Sultan Tepe (University of Illinois, Chicago) and Bilge Yabanci (Northwestern University and Ca' Foscari University of Venice). It will take place at the Northwestern University Evanston Campus. It is funded through the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

This workshop has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101023843

Please contact the conveners, Bilge Yabanci (bilge.yabanci@northwestern.edu) or Sultan Tepe (sultant@uic.edu) for any inquiries or further information.