July 12
Prof. Claudia Liebelt

Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universtität Berlin

Book Launch

"Istanbul Appearances: Beauty and the Making of Middle Class Femininities" (Syracuse UP, April 2023)

In conversation with Prof. Esra Özyürek
Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values, University of Cambridge

In the twenty-first century, the consumption of beauty services and cosmetic surgery in Turkey has developed from an elite phenomenon to an increasingly common practice, especially among younger and middle-aged women. Turkey now ranks among the top countries worldwide with the highest number of cosmetic procedures, and with its cultural and economic capital, Istanbul has become a regional center for the beauty and fashion industries. Istanbul Appearances illustrates the profound effects of this growing market on urban residents’ body images, gendered norms, and practices. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork carried out in beauty salons and clinics in different parts of the city, Claudia Liebelt explores how standards of femininity and female desire have shifted since the consolidation of power and authoritarian rule of the conservative, Islamic Justice and Development Party. Arguing that the politics of beauty are intricately bound up with the politics of race, class, gender, and sexuality, she shows that female bodies have become a major site for the negotiation of citizenship. It is in the numerous beauty salons and clinics that heteronormative ideals and images of gendered bodies become real, embodied in a complex array of emotional desires of who and what is considered not only beautiful but also morally proper.


Join us on-site in the FU Seminar Centre, Otto-von-Simson-Str. 26, 14195 Berlin, room L116.

Or online in our Webex room:
https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin/j.php?MTID=m794436243b11f9800d0d1fa0ed00f3b7
meeting ID: 2731 960 1442, password: BASsummer23

About the Berlin Anthropology Seminars

This seminar series constitutes a joint initiative by anthropologists from the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at FU Berlin, ZMO, and Ethnologisches Museum. It intends to shape and cultivate an inclusive platform and open regular meeting point for exchange and discussion on current research by Berlin-based anthropologists. Please spread the word among colleagues, junior or senior, who may be interested. For further questions contact m.oschwald@fu-berlin.de

Organizers: Paola Ivanov, Claudia Liebelt, and Kai Kresse.