Susan Benson-sokmen

Biography

Susan Benson-Sokmen PhD Program, University of Toronto, Canada. Since the summer of 2011 I have been conducting ethnographic research in the city of DoÄŸubeyazıt, a predominantly Kurdish town in Eastern Turkey. I use oral history methods (listening to people as their reflect on their own culture and history) in order to understand how Kurdish women and men use the history of Kurdish women participating in armed struggle in the “mountains” to challenge and change gender relations at “home.” I am hoping to show that the “memory” of armed struggle is a productive legacy for Kurds who are using it to “bring democracy home”-whether that home be the European Union, “Kurdistan,” the Turkish state or the streets and houses of Turkey’s “4th most Kurdish city” Susan Benson-Sokmen PhD Program, University of Toronto, Canada. Since the summer of 2011 I have been conducting ethnographic research in the city of DoÄŸubeyazıt, a predominantly Kurdish town in Eastern Turkey. I use oral history methods (listening to people as their reflect on their own culture and history) in order to understand how Kurdish women and men use the history of Kurdish women participating in armed struggle in the “mountains” to challenge and change gender relations at “home.” I am hoping to show that the “memory” of armed struggle is a productive legacy for Kurds who are using it to “bring democracy home”-whether that home be the European Union, “Kurdistan,” the Turkish state or the streets and houses of Turkey’s “4th most Kurdish city”

Research Interest

History