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Mehmet Ragip Zik

Mehmet Ragip Zik

Dissertation Project: “Visual activism in a digital era: Mobilisation through images in the Gezi Movement and the Anti-Coup Resistance”

Doktorand

E-Mail
ragip.zik@fu-berlin.de

PhD project

“Visual Activism in a Digital Era: Political Imageries of Gezi Movement and Anti-Coup Resistance"

The project stems from an understanding of political imageries and digital media as part of social conflict. It aims at exploring and analyzing the contemporary visual activism across social movements with unreconciling political agendas, by focusing on production and dissemination practices around genres of photography and illustration. Two major events in Turkey's recent political and social history, Gezi Protest Movement of 2013 and Anti-Coup Resistance of 2016 are selected as case study. The study relies on a grounded visual analysis for data collection and interpretation, combining qualitative grounded theory, visual social semiotics, and iconology. 

Vita

  • Since 2015: PhD Candidate in Sociology, Freie Universität Berlin
  • 2004 – 2008: MA in Cultural Studies, Istanbul Bilgi University
    (Dissertation title: “In Pursuit of Reunification: Interventions in Everyday Life through Art in New Social Movements”)
  • 2000 – 2004: BA in Management, Yildiz Technical University
    (Dissertation title: “Sivil Toplum Kuruluşlarında Örgüt Kültürü ve Gönüllülük” - in Turkish. “Organizational Culture and Volunteerism in NGOs”)

Research Interests

  • Visual Sociology
  • Digitality and Social Media
  • Social Movements
  • Social Semiotics
  • Affect Theory

 

Publications

Please see https://fu-berlin.academia.edu/RagipZik for an up-to-date list of publications

  • Zık, M. Ragıp. (in print). “Making of a Common Woman Figure: Convergence and Struggle of Visual Practices around Gezi’s Icon”. In Popularisation / Populism through the Visual Arts: Attraction Images. edited by A. Schoeber-de Graaf. New York: Routledge.
  • Co-author in: Bens, Jonas et al. (in print). The Politics of Affective Societies: An Interdisciplinary Essay. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag. 
  • Zık, M. Ragıp. 2018. One building, several facades: political showcasing in contemporary Turkey. Open Democracy / ISA RC-47: Open Movements, 17 October. http://tiny.cc/zqlh7y 
  • Zık, M. Ragıp. 2018. Visuals and Salient Identities: construction of “Gezi Spirit” as a Multifaceted Identity through Images. TransScripts, 7. Pp.1-29. http://tiny.cc/f3lh7y 
  • Zik, M. Ragip. 2015. Raising a Resistance: Reinterpreting Art within Gezi Movement, Pp. 535-543 Global Activism: Art and Conflict in the 21th Century, edited by Peter Weibel. Cambrigde, MA: ZKM | Karlsruhe and MIT Press.
  • Zik, M. Ragip and Cécile Barbeito. 2013. “Still Waiting for Peace…” Coyote, 19:42-46, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
  • Zik, M. Ragip. 2009. “Avrupa’da Sivil Toplum ve Sosyal Merkezler Örneği (Civil Society in Europe and ‘Social Centers’ Example)”, Kelebek Etkisi, special issue:23-25, Istanbul (in Turkish). 

 

Fellowships

 

Conferences & Interactive Presentations

  • Visual Research PhD Workshop, Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, Austria, 27-28 June 2019
  • Visual Social Sciences and Digital Media Conference, Univ. of Copenhagen, 11 October 2018
  • International Sociological Association’s World Congress of Sociology, Canada,  15-21 July 2018
  • Artist/Researcher, “Workshop: Narrating Images”, Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U), Berlin, 22 Mar 2018
  • Artist/Researcher, “Card Game: Errant Iconographies”, Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U), Berlin, 22 Feb 2018
  • Artist/Researcher, “Mini Interactive Exhibition: Images that Move (Us)”, Center for Art and Urbanistics (ZK/U), Berlin, 25 Jan 2018
  • Speaker, “Affective Visuals in Online Spaces”, German Anthropology Association Conference, Berlin, 5-8 October 2017
  • Speaker, “Digitality and Everyday Life: affective interactions across Greece and Turkey through visual images”, Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Sydney, 14-17 December 2016
  • Speaker, “Digitality and Emotions in Social Movements”, Turkologentag European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Hamburg, 14-17 September 2016
  • Speaker, “Digitality and Circulation of Affect in Contemporary Social Movements”, Re-Configurations, History, Remembrance and Transformation Processes Academy, Tunis, 28 August - 4 September 2016
  • Speaker, “Digitality, Visual Rhetoric and Affect Circulation in Contemporary Social Movements”, European Consortium for Political Research Graduate Student Conference, Tartu, 11-14 July 2016
  • Speaker, “Making Encounters through Art: a case story from Turkey”, with Research Institute Turkey at Left Forum, New York, 29-31 May 2015
  • Keynote speaker, “Young People as Actors of Peace-building in Europe”, Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Sub Committee on Education and Youth, Strasbourg, 28 January 2015
  • Speaker, “Exhibition: 20 Dollars 20 Kilos”, Historical Culture in Divided Societies: From Theory to Practice Conference, Home for Cooperation, Nicosia, 18-20 December 2014
  • Speaker, “Interventions through Art in Social Movements: The Case of Gezi”, Global Activism Symposium, ZKM, Karlsruhe, 24-25 January 2014

 

Professional Vita

 

Memberships & Affiliations

  • Since 2017: Member of Visual Sociology Research Committee at the International Sociological Association
  • Since 2016: Member of Society and Emotions Thematic Group at the International Sociological Association
  • Since 2011: Member of Trainers’ Pool of Council of Europe for Human Rights Education
  • 2000-2015: Has been affiliated to Association for Cultural Studies, Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, Association for Independent Research, Information, and Communication (BABIL), Fair Trade Hellas, Service Civil International Italy (SCI), Hangar Art Association, Turkish-Greek Student Society (TurGreSoc), and European Students’ Forum (AEGEE-Istanbul).