CFP for WOCMES 2018 panel on the Gulen Movement after the 2016 coup attempt

Panel proposal for the 2018 WOCMES meetings, 16-22 July in Seville, Spain

We are seeking paper abstracts for a WOCMES 2018 proposed panel on developments in the Gülen Movement in light of the July 15, 2016, attempted coup d’etat in Turkey. There has been much academic discussion and debate about the movement’s structure, projects, and religious, economic, and political motivations. Movement members themselves have also promoted a particular image of Gülen and his community through many co-sponsored events over the years. This panel seeks to bring together interested academics and others to discuss the state of the movement in the context of the rapidly changing political situation in Turkey and within the international context, especially after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the movement of spearheading the July 15, 2016, coup. Possible topics include:

• Discursive framing of the coup attempt and its aftermath by Erdoğan, Gülen, and other stakeholders in the conflict in Turkey

• The movement’s differing representations of itself in Turkey and in the West, and how these differences contribute to the production of contrasting scholarly narratives among Western and Turkish academics

• The effects of shuttering of many institutions (schools, hospitals, media organizations, international aid organizations, etc.) associated with the movement in Turkey

• What has happened to the movement within Turkey since the coup attempt

• What is happening with the movement in various international contexts

• How the government’s attempt to clamp down on the movement has had wide-ranging political and human rights effects

• Speculations about what the future may hold for the movement and for Turkey itself.

This event isn't meant to be a platform to disparage or praise the movement, but to produce aninterdisciplinary discussion about an influential international organization deeply implicated in the political evolution of Turkey.

Please send panel abstracts (250-300 words) to: Dr. Kim Shively, Professor of Anthropology, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, USA, shively@kutztown.edu by Dec. 1, 2017.

Published on HNet, 25 November 2017, Saturday