Transformative activism and feminist solidarity: A qualitative research on the personal narratives of Polish activist women

Transformative activism and feminist solidarity: A qualitative research on the personal narratives of Polish activist women

ECEM NAZLI ÜÇOK

Since coming to power in Poland in 2015, the Law and Justice Party's (PiS) government has targeted women's rights groups and organisations through raids, denial of funding, political rhetoric, and policies (Paternotte and Kuhar 2018). The seminar will focus on the initial research results among the Polish political activists of the feminist/ LGBTIQ movement, who immigrated to other cities in Europe due to the ongoing attacks on LGBTIQ and women's rights in Poland. Through conducting life-story interviews with Polish activists/ immigrant women, this ongoing PhD research project tries to reveal the importance of individual narratives of activists rather than emphasizing narratives of social movements (Davis 2002; Makaros and Blit-Cohen 2022). The research focuses on the relationship between activists' identity construction and political biographies (McAdam 1986) by examining how Polish activist women began to experience specific socio-political shifts in their lives as activists and women.

Ecem Nazlı Üçok is a third-year PhD student and a lecturer at the Sociology Department of Charles University. She completed a MSc degree in Gender Studies at Lund University, Sweden, before her PhD studies. She has conducted ethnographic research on the gender identities of Turkish migrant men living in Sweden. Since 2021, she has been teaching at Charles University on Gender and Masculinities. Currently, she is involved in two projects: investigating Polish activist women’s narratives in the context of the anti-gender movement and the SYRI project, in which she mainly focuses on populism and polarization. Her research area combines feminist studies, political research and intersectionality, anti-gender movements in Europe, populism/far-right politics, transnational migration, and masculinities.

Seminar will be held in English.

No registration is needed.