100 Years of Turkish Secularism: Issues, Debates, Prospects

Turkey’s experience with secularism was celebrated for a long time as the most successful model of state-religion relations in a Muslim-majority context. It has also been criticized, however, for being a top-down imposition, shaped by assertive policies of the state. As such, it has been likened by many to French laïcité, rather than the Anglo-American model, or seen as a model on its own, with a distinctive ideological ethos and institutional framework.

Marking the centenary of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, this one-day workshop revisits Turkish secularism in a long durée perspective. It looks at the trajectory of state-religion relations in Turkey from the foundation of secularism as a constitutional principle to the contemporary debates around desecularization under the Justice and Development Party rule. The workshop brings together renowned scholars in the field to address the main debates on Turkish secularism with fresh perspectives and to revisit the key dynamics of religion-politics relations in Turkey by going beyond simplistic binaries, such as secular state vs. conservative society. Situating the Turkish case in the wider global context, the workshop aims to provide insights not only into the prospects of secularism in Turkey, but also into discussions around (de)secularization, new authoritarianisms, and religious populism.

Workshop is free to attend but registration is required.

Organizer:Sevgi Adak, AKU-ISMC

Speakers:

Sevgi Adak is Associate Professor in Middle East Studies and Head of Research at the Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations. She specialises in politics of gender in the Middle East, dynamics of secularism and desecularization, social history of modern Turkey, and Turkish politics. She is the author of Anti-Veiling Campaigns in Turkey: State, Society and Gender in the Early Republic (I.B. Tauris, 2022).

Murat Akan is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul. He has had numerous visiting positions in the US and Europe, including Paris Institute for Advanced Study, L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and George Washington University. His research focusses on secularism, constitutions, multiculturalism, and Turkish and French politics. He is the author of The Politics of Secularism: Religion, Diversity, and Institutional Change in France and Turkey (Columbia University Press, 2017).

Umut Azak is Professor and Head of Department at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Okan University. She had various research, teaching and visiting positions in Leiden, Utrecht, Berlin, Tokyo and Bloomington, Indiana. Her research focuses on secularism, conservatism and women’s history. She is the author of Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State (I.B.Tauris, 2010).

Zana Çıtak is Associate Professor of Political Science and Vice-Chair of the Department of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University, Ankara. She had visiting positions at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Specializing in state-religion relations, politics of nationalism, and Islam in Europe, Çıtak published widely on dynamics of secularism and nationalism in Turkey, France and post-Soviet Azerbaijan, as well as on migration and Islam in Europe.

Efe Peker is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on state-religion relations, secularity, immigration, and nationalist-populist politics in Canada, Western Europe, and the Middle East. His work appeared in high impact journals, including Comparative Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies and The American Sociologist. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book Populisme et sciences sociales: Perspectives québécoises, canadiennes et transatlantiques (University of Ottawa Press).

Sultan Tepe is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois Chicago and co-Editor in Chief of Politics and Religion. Her research focuses on the intersection of democracy, religion, and politics, covering a range of topics from the populist and authoritarian practices of political parties to the formation of new political theologies in cities. She is the author of Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey (Stanford University Press, 2008).