Zeynep Uğur

I was born in Istanbul and based in Paris since 5 years. While studying International Relations in Galatasaray University, I played an active role in university's theatre club. In 2014, I moved to Paris for my MA in political studies at EHESS. In 2015, I started my PhD at the same department with my dissertation “Transformation of Public Culture: Theatre as a Battleground of Politics in Turkey after 2000s”. In this research based on the fieldwork with public and alternative theatres in Istanbul, I analyze new types of socialization and political practices, focusing on theatre's relation to the space and public sphere. Since 2017, I work as a research assistant in my thesis advisor Nilüfer Göle's project Public Space Democracy: Performative, Normative and Visual Dimensions of Politics in a Global Age (PublicDemoS). Among my research topics are public square movements, spatial dimensions of intercultural practices, the relation between populism and culture and cultural policy.

My questioning in these subjects led me to different projects and collaborations, namely the organization of an international conference on social sciences and theatre, an academic project on cultural interactions between Arab and Turkish citizens in Istanbul, a podcast project on the role of musical crossbreeding of Arab and Turkish classics with electro on the creation of intercultural publics in nocturnal scene. Finally, my quest for a transdisciplinary approach is concretized in the creation of the first Fringe Festival of Istanbul where I am responsible of festival's cultural policy and archiving. Besides, I organize a workshop on how to think of a multicultural public space in a city through performing arts.

Thus, I think my work is perfectly resonating with Reshape project and especially with the topic “How can art better support practicing citizenship together?”