If margins can become sites of resistance, what are the dynamics that can create change in the critical edges they form? This episode addresses the dynamics of margins created and sustained in the multicultural Antakya borderlands in Turkey’s Hatay region. Our guest, Şule Can, discusses everyday experiences of displacement, borders, disasters, tourism, community-building and cultural heritage in her hometown of Antakya, a border city with rich history and complex current developments. In particular, the episode delves into activist research, anthropology, and grassroots movements that are deeply involved in community work and reconstruction following devastating earthquakes. In 2023, earthquakes hit southern Turkey and northwest Syria, killing at least 60,000 people and destroying much of Antakya. Join us for this insightful episode hosted by Katherine Hall.
Şule Can is an outreach coordinator, lecturer and socio-cultural anthropologist at Binghamton University Center for Middle East and North Africa Studies. Her research focuses on the anthropology of the Middle East, urban politics, borders and displacement, disasters and cultural heritage. Her latest research addresses the politics of solidarity among Syrian women in Turkey. As an activist researcher, she is deeply engaged in community-building in her hometown of Antakya. Among others, she is the author of the title Refugee Encounters at the Turkish-Syrian Border: Antakya at the Crossroads.
Date of recording: 10 February 2025
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