The Centre for Comparative Modernities is delighted to announce the second session in its 2024/25 Autumn term workshop series on 29 October 2024.
Please note all sessions will be online on Zoom at 14:00 UK time: https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/8603919782?pwd=OGxydGs1QVNKZTJrbTJuZkF3ZEZIZz09
Meeting ID: 860 391 9782
Passcode: 444615
Session 1: Ethnoreligious and Gender Modernities [29 October 2024]
Minoritarian Modernisms, Ethnic Abjections: Rum Theatre in 20th Century Istanbul
Christina Banalopoulou, University of Milan
Abstract: How do ethnic minorities use theatre to develop minoritarian modernisms that question the Eurocentric formulations of modernity? In what ways do the porous borders between artistic and everyday performances of minoritarian modernities both unsettle and reproduce hegemonic power relations? The theatre practices of the Rum minority in contemporary Turkey offer a great vantage point for approaching these questions. Combining multi-sited archival and ethnographic research, my essay will demonstrate that Rum minoritarian theatre provides non-dominant articulations of modernity that are particular to the community’s ethnolinguistic and religious diversity. In addition to their minoritarian particularity, these largely ignored theatrical processes of modernization can contribute significantly to theories of modernity that are both critical of the nation-state and the narratives that frame Greece as the cradle of modernity.
The Rum minority in Turkey comprises the Greek populations of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Their lives have long been defined by the conflicting and mutually constitutive Greek and Turkish nationalisms, and their political investments are not always fully aligned with either country. The community played a vital role in popularizing modern European theatre in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey in the early 20th century. As the ethnic-cleansing logics of the nationalist projects of Turkey and Greece continued to intensify, however, Rum minoritarian modernities—such as the work of the Filoi tis Texnis [Friends of the Art] theatre collective—were guided by the community’s efforts to resist the dominant processes of modernization that contributed to their ethnic abjection.
The growing literature on non-eurocentric theories of modernity seeks to decentralize the hegemony of western epistemological paradigms by mapping “multiple” and “alternative” modernisms. Despite these significant advances, however, the differentially conflicting tensions between multiple modernities remain relatively unexplored. By applying the concept of minoritarian modernisms, my essay will address the competing connotations of modernities from the perspective of ethnoreligious and linguistic diversity and abjection.
Biography: Christina Banalopoulou holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park. She currently works as a visiting assistant professor in the project Archives of Abjection: Minoritarian Cultural Production in Turkey and Its Diasporas at the University of Milan. Christina’s primary areas of interest include minoritarian performance, feminist economics, and the intersections between the somatic and the political, with a focus on the Mediterranean. Her essays have been published or are forthcoming in peer-reviewed journals, including Theatre Research International, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Rethinking Marxism, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, and Performance Philosophy.
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Modernities, Gender, and Material Culture Through the Lens of Homemaking Practices Among Mobile Working Men in Northern India
Devika Bahadur, De Montford University
Abstract: This research proposal explores the intersection of modernities, gender, and material culture through the lens of homemaking practices among mobile working men in northern India. By examining how these practices are influenced by internal migration and urbanization, this study contributes to our understanding of non-Western and transnational modernities, challenging conventional Western-centric paradigms.
The research addresses the following questions:
- How do homemaking practices among mobile working men in northern India reflect evolving concepts of modernity and gender roles?
- How do rural-urban migrations shape these practices, and how do they differ from traditional homemaking in their places of origin?
- What role do material objects play in negotiating cultural identity and modernity for these mobile men in temporary urban accommodations?
Using archival research and ethnographic methods, this study will analyse historical documents, conduct interviews, and gather visual data from the early 20th century to the present day. The research will employ a combination of content analysis and semiotic analysis to interpret these materials, situating them within the broader context of India’s modernization and evolving notions of masculinity and domesticity.
By focusing on homemaking practices of mobile working men, this research offers a unique perspective on how non-Western communities engage with and reshape concepts of modernity. It challenges conventional understandings of modernization as a unidirectional process of Westernization by highlighting the complex interplay between traditional practices and modern influences in the domestic sphere of temporary urban accommodations.
This study contributes to the CCM’s goal of fostering interdisciplinary perspectives by bridging material culture studies, gender studies, and urban studies in the Indian context. It offers insights into how modernity is experienced, negotiated, and reimagined in the everyday lives of mobile working men, providing a nuanced understanding of the diverse trajectories of modernities beyond the Western-centric paradigm.
Biography: Devika is a PhD student in Cultural Studies where she explores the intersection between material culture and the notion of masculinity in India in contrast to European readings of home. Her understanding of “recreating a home away from home” has thematised and inspired her recent artworks as she has identified that the phenomenon of recreating home became apparent during the Covid-19 pandemic when people were often emotionally affected as they returned to remote workplaces, often away from their family homes.
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