By Durukan Kuzu, ASEN and ASEN Seminars Co-chair
The theme of ASEN’s 2012 seminar series is “Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Gender”. The overall aim of this seminar series is to scrutinize the relationship between the politics of gender, nationalism and ethnicity. It has been argued that gender inequality is inherent in nationalism as “all nationalism, tends to be conservative,” and ‘conservative’ often means ‘patriarchal’. This is partly due to the tendency of nationalists to be ‘re-traditionalisers’ and to embrace tradition as a legitimating basis for nation-building and cultural renewal. Civic-secular, liberal, and multicultural formulations of nationalism have been claimed in order to rectify gender inequalities, yet these formulations of nationalism have brought about new problems with respect to gender equality and liberation. Seminar speakers are invited to discuss whether the civic/secular, liberal or a multicultural formulation of nation is able to promote gender equality.