Guest lecture Dr. Latif Tas: Authoritarian State, Acute Conflict and the Emergence of Alternative Governmentality

Afternoon Talk on Islamic Law

  • Date: Feb 25, 2021
  • Time: 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Location: online

About the Speaker:

Dr. Latif Tas is a Marie-Curie Global Fellow at SOAS University of London. He was a Member of theInstitute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton (2019-2020). He received his PhD from the Faculty of Law, Queen Mary University of London (2012). His research project, TRANSNATIONALaw, has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research andinnovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 703201 (2017-2020). Institutions in the UK (SOAS), USA (Syracuse University) and Germany (MPI for Social Anthropology), hosted this unique research. He is well known for his study of the intersection of science, politics, social justice, and inequality. His upcoming new book, which is based on the findings of Dr. Tas’s ethnographic research, is titled Authoritarianism and Alternative Politics, and will be published by Edinburgh University Press.

About the Topic:

This talk addresses Kurdish non-state justice, the emergence and need for alternative governmentality under conflicted and authoritarian state’s structure. It starts with an official Turkish state judge’s account in Diyarbakir, Turkey. It analyses how and why Kurdish de-facto judges have practised and negotiated prevailing power relations, illustrating the practice of the Kurdish alternative court system before 2000, and also the development and changes of local justice in Kurdish towns and cities after 2000. The talk maps out the diverse and varied scene of Kurdish parallel justice procedures and mechanisms. In this context, the gendered demands and activities of key actors and beneficiaries are analysed, and relations, tensions and political rifts beyond the actual court procedures explored. This talk sheds light on the different obstacles and challenges facing women and men, while also paying attention to ethnic and religious diversities and different supporters of the Kurdish movement and the conflicts existing between them.

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