MA Thesis (unp.) by Omer Halil Unal
This thesis examines the nation within the dervish-efendi community, the affect of war, and the p... more This thesis examines the nation within the dervish-efendi community, the affect of war, and the politics of love in the late 19th century by looking into an egodocument. The autobiography/memoir of Aşçı Dede Ibrahim Halil Efendi is used as the primary source for this research. This micro-historical research argues that the dervish-efendi community constituted the social medium where bureaucracy and dervishes meet, sociopolitical networks are established, and norms and morals of the male community are crystallized. By discussing the male-male desire in Ibrahim Efendi's self-narrative, this thesis argues that heteronormativity and Ottoman respectability tamed bodies and desires throughout the 19th century.
Final Papers for Selected Courses by Omer Halil Unal
In this paper, I will first provide a brief overview of the movie that highlights queerness, visi... more In this paper, I will first provide a brief overview of the movie that highlights queerness, visibility, and violence in the context of the movie. Secondly, I will focus on specific scenes from the movie in which discourses of "fishing," "ranch," and "tire iron" appear in the various contexts. Lastly, I will offer an analysis that focuses on the relationship of queerness, visibility and violence.Throughout the paper, I use queer subjectivity as the forms of queerness-appearances in life by queer individuals. In that sense, queer visibility refers to either manifestation of queerness by queers or the disclosure of queerness by others. I use the term violence in that not limited to physical meaning, also as a psychological and social phenomenon. Not only in the form of collective violence but together with the various dimensions, violence follows a pattern that shows constitutive and destructive impact either on the personal or social level, when queer subjectivity and visibility occurred.
This paper focuses on fin de siècle Vienna to reconsider the masculine sphere between Jewish inte... more This paper focuses on fin de siècle Vienna to reconsider the masculine sphere between Jewish intelligentsia and antisemites regarding the Jewish male body as the center of politics. It begins with Jewish intelligence as a significant trope of the artificial and deceitful Jewish male body in antisemitic imagination. Then, the circumcised penis of a Jew will be investigated through homosexuality, and the Oedipus complex, as his theory will be calibrated historically with Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). In the last section, this paper shifts to the Jewish beard as seen in Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) and frames Zionism as a Jewish reflection of the muscled and robust Jewish male body. Largely following prominent figures of fin de siècle Vienna as the anatomy of this paper, I argue that Freud and Herzl have responded to the crisis of their era in ways that they developed tools to emancipate from racialized, femininized, and pathologized categories of Jewishness en masse. Furthermore, they aimed to masculinize and hetero-sexualize Jews to eliminate racialist, pathologizing, and homophobic determinations.
This paper investigates the Turkish Republic's interwar policies concerning marriage and reproduc... more This paper investigates the Turkish Republic's interwar policies concerning marriage and reproductivity regulations. Besides the ban on polygamy in the 1926 Turkish Civil Code, the ban on abortion in the 1926 Criminal Code and the amendment in 1936 will be the focus of this paper. I argue that both regulations, the ban on polygamy and the prohibition of abortion, operate within racial hierarchies of the interwar era on the civilizational and biological axes. The woman is instrumentalized as the identity-maker, the core of biological reproductivity, and the representation of modernity by both the traditional and modern patriarchy. Furthermore, the ban on abortion and the amendments of 1936 show the interconnectedness of the Kemalist regime with post-war pronatalism and state racism. This paper, first, briefly investigates the relationship between the body and modernity by looking into biopolitics. Then, it turns into a new woman and the instrumentality of the woman's body in the Kemalist project by focusing on the 1926 Turkish Civil and Criminal Code and the 1936 amendments to Criminal Code concerning abortion.
In this paper, I argue that MKA represents whiteness in the Turkish context, and his whiteness re... more In this paper, I argue that MKA represents whiteness in the Turkish context, and his whiteness reflects the belonging of Turks to the white race. This article suggests reading together his Western look, i.e., blue eyes and blond hair; his ancestral origins from Rumelia or the Balkans; and his socio-political legacy. First, as indications of MKA's whiteness, emphasizing his Western phenotype in popular culture, namely in songs, photography, and written culture, will be analyzed. Secondly, I show why Salonika had appeared as a racialization instrument and how Rumelia had been imagined in contrast to Anatolia by Turkish nationalists. Lastly, this paper discusses why the political and cultural legacy of MKA is operational within the global racial hierarchies.
This paper suggests considering the global football market within economic nationalism through re... more This paper suggests considering the global football market within economic nationalism through restrictions on foreign players. By looking into the limit on foreign players of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), I argue that nationalism and economic policies on football operate together in Turkey. In this paper, the nationalist policy set of Turkey is contextualized within the Western European domination of global football and the competition with European football. I argue that the limit on foreign football players is a policy conscripted from the cloudy ideology of economic nationalism. This paper at first investigates the domination of EUrope in the global economy of football. Then, it focuses on Turkey and elaborates on the economic nationalist policy set in the economy of football. Turkey’s limit on foreign football players operates within the agenda of increasing home-grown players and strengthening the national team by recruiting transnational players from the Western European diaspora. Therefore, restricting foreign players in Turkish football is a policy of economic nationalism concerning empowering national human sources, financial revenue, and cultural hegemony vis-à-vis the EUropean domination of football.
Book Reviews (unp.) by Omer Halil Unal
Nationalism and War was written by John Hutchinson, is scholar at the London School of Economics ... more Nationalism and War was written by John Hutchinson, is scholar at the London School of Economics and works on nationalism. As a student of Anthony Smith, Hutchinson does not only follows ethno-symbolic approach but also dedicates this book to Smith’s memory, who passed away in 2016. The main argument of the book is warfare and war commemorations have a central position, whether pre-modern or modern, for the construction of national identity, nation-state, and nationalism. From that point of view, Hutchinson objects to Anderson and other modernist approaches, which see war as an indicator of the rise of nationalism, and an incidental actor of nation-building processes (p.1). Overall, Nationalism and War is an eminent book, which brings the present literature together and offers a dynamic narrative. However, sometimes the novel arguments of Hutchinson tend to disappear in the complex histories of war and nationalism. The main problems of the book, in my view, first emerge from the tension between modernist and the ethno-symbolic approach, and second, a less than satisfactory answer for whether war intrinsic to
nationalism or not.
Response Papers for Selected Courses by Omer Halil Unal
In chapter nine of Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia, Dan Healey focuses on the Gulag and... more In chapter nine of Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia, Dan Healey focuses on the Gulag and the clinic as the two institutions of the Soviet Union where male and female homosexual relations have appeared and are regulated. While Healey benefits from archival and published materials for his inquiry, he looks at the prison and the Gulag cultures of homosexuality, the impact of de-Stalinization policies on sexual regulation, and later transformations that have challenged post and neo-Stalinist moral policies. In that sense, Healey presents three different periods, Tsarist, Stalin, and de-Stalinization, under a common theme of regulating homosexuality with its continuation and disjuncture of mentality and practice. Following this chapter, in this paper, first, I explore the heteronormative and patriarchal reflections on prison life, especially in male prisons. Secondly, I show the constitutive function of heteronormativity on the administration and the clinic about same-sex love.
Dan Healey discusses the judicial reformations on same-sex love before and after 1917, centering ... more Dan Healey discusses the judicial reformations on same-sex love before and after 1917, centering the language of modernity in the fourth chapter of his book Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia. The state sees same-sex love as a perversion and decides to be banned to preserve a society based on tradition and religion. The new understanding evaluates the ban as unpractical and a violation of gender equality, the right to privacy, and individual autonomy. However, without changing the identification of perversion for same-sex love, a new understanding brings sexuality from under shadows to the lights of the public sphere.
This paper focuses on Olmo Gölz’s articles as the case studies of luti masculinity and racket the... more This paper focuses on Olmo Gölz’s articles as the case studies of luti masculinity and racket theory in two significant shifts in Iran’s modern history. First, by looking into the agency in the Constitutional Revolution and the coup d’état of 1953, I aim to compare and contrast both lutigari agencies. In this direction, I argue that both lutigari examples are not contradicting each other but indicate continuity in the ways of power crystallization and intensification of social control. In the second part, I zero in on the masculinity dimension of lutigari by arguing that luti is vague for analyzing masculine configurations. Lastly, the theories of Weber and Horkheimer-Adorno will be reconsidered to understand the structuring of domination and legitimacy-making in Iran. This paper concludes with skepticism toward the social evolutionary approach as seen in Weber contrary to Frankfurt School, and it suggests further research on lutigari or urban poor masculinity, for instance, looking into criminality and imprisonment experience.
This paper suggests understanding honor as the medium that multiple regulatory agendas compete to... more This paper suggests understanding honor as the medium that multiple regulatory agendas compete to dominate. I adopt the argument that honor is the social contract among males in this context. In addition, I conceptualize honor in line with Sirman when she points out the intimacy of rivals who shall have to compete in order to remain, at least, equal. Suppose one usage of politics of honor is complaint registers, as Tuğ argues, between an ordinary subject and the sultan. In that case, the second one should be seen to make the police the most legitimate and efficient intermediary between the state and society. Moreover, politics of honor operates in Albanian provinces as the power struggle in the triangle of northern and southern Albanians and the central state. In this paper, by benefitting from Pierce’s honor as a social contract formulation, I engage with the studies of Tuğ, Lévy-Aksu, and Blumi to elaborate on conceptualizing honor in the Ottoman context.
In this paper, I engage with Connell's "The History of Masculinity" and two chapters from Mosse's... more In this paper, I engage with Connell's "The History of Masculinity" and two chapters from Mosse's The Image of Man, "Introduction: The Masculine Stereotype" and "The New Fascist Man." I argue that Mosse's' formulation of stereotype helps analyze both patriarchy and hegemonic masculinities as well as other masculinities. Since Connell's formulation of hegemonic masculinity benefits from the Gramscian theory of hegemony, it becomes manifest that race, class, and gender operate together in making the hierarchy of masculinities. Furthermore, I suggest reading about the emergence of homosexuality together with the modern production of positive and countertype masculine stereotypes. Lastly, considering warfare and colonialism of the nineteenth and twentieth century through the lenses of masculinity, nationalism is crucial in both productions of state-body-nation resemblance and the acculturation of masses with the institutionalized formulation of masculinity and femininity. Therefore, negotiation with and resistance to hegemonic masculinity produce consent that realizes the hegemonic project by transformation.
Scientific Articles by Omer Halil Unal
International Journal of Human Rights , 2022
This infographic summarizes the main points in my article entitled, "Internationalization Nexus i... more This infographic summarizes the main points in my article entitled, "Internationalization Nexus in European Higher Education: Forced or Intended". I have also used it to expand on my findings regarding forced and intended consequences of internationalization as well as its impact on academic freedom during my presentation at the ISA Annual Convention that took place in Montreal in March, 2023. Many thanks to Omer Halil Unal for the great support in visualization.
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MA Thesis (unp.) by Omer Halil Unal
Final Papers for Selected Courses by Omer Halil Unal
Book Reviews (unp.) by Omer Halil Unal
nationalism or not.
Response Papers for Selected Courses by Omer Halil Unal
Scientific Articles by Omer Halil Unal
nationalism or not.