Talks

An amateurish interview I made on the channel called Anthronaut, managed by Ankara University Anthropology Student Community, representing the undergraduate department of Folklore. I tried to address both the historical and methodological distinctions of Folklore and Ethnology. I presented my general thoughts on the subject of posthumanism with which I was working and from there on social sciences.

0:52  Who is Erhan Korkmaz?

4:40  Folklore History

11:10  Method Discussion

20:28  Postmodernism Through the Subject-Object Example

33:11  On Kinship Systems

39:05  On Power Relations and Conflicts

49:30  Body Awareness + Desires

58:50  For Those Who Want to Study Folklore

1:02:54  Behind the Camera

We held an amateur talk on posthumanism on the youtube channel called Ankara University Philosophy Community, which is managed by the Ankara University Philosophy Community. In this interview, from what posthumanism is to the diversity of fields of study; I tried to deal with it from how it will be handled through current examples to how it relates to current political ideologies.

00:20 What is Posthumanism?

02:40 The Relationship among Matter, Materialism and Posthumanism

07:30 Will Posthumanism and Multiculturalism Approach Fade Cultural, Economic and Political Differences in the Future? 

12:25 Where is the Posthumanist Approach in Socialist and Marxist Class Struggle?

14:00 2019 - 2020 Global Pandemic Example

18:30 Does Posthumanism Offer an Action Set in the Process of Ecological Destruction? Are Posthumanist Approaches Practical?

22:40 What is the Relationship between Posthumanism and the Capitalocene Era? What Do Socialists and Posthumanists Have in Common? Should These Two Act Together?

26:10 The Relationship between Consumption Culture and Posthumanism

32:20 Friedrich Nietzsche and the Übermensch Concept

34:40 The Fuzziness of Nietzsche's Discourses Through Terry Eagleton Criticism

41:40 Can Posthumanist Approaches Solve Nature and Social Problems?

50:05 Behind the camera

We held an amateur talk on veganism on the youtube channel called Ankara University Philosophy Community, which is managed by the Ankara University Philosophy Community. In this interview, with my vegan friend Gamze, we talked about what veganism is and what it is not; I touched on the theoretical and practical approaches of activists in the vegan movement and how the relationship between consumption culture and vegan consumption is.

00:00:40 How Did You Become Vegan?

00:04:00 Do You Think We Will Face A Vegan World In The Future?

00:06:30 To What Extent Do Vegans Aim for Cultural Change?

00:08:15 Vegan Movement Relationship with Companies in the Animal Industry

00:11:30 Historical Process of Veganism

00:15:30 Various Effects of Individual and Organizational Vegan Movement

00:20:50 The Food Chain Illusion and the Position of People in Nature

00:30:00 On Donna Haraway and Her Not Being Vegan

00:36:50 The Relationship between Climate Crisis and Veganism

00:40:20 How Vegans Approach the Struggle of the Working Class? Are Vegans Fighting Against the Exploitation of Capitalism?? 

00:45:30 How Do Vegan Activists Approach Working Class Unconsciousness?

00:49:00 Are Vegans Consistent in Their Actions? Is Veganism a Bourgeois Movement?

00:56:00 On Pets

01:06:15 On Speciesism

01:19:00 Behind the Camera

Video recording of the event on speciesism within the scope of the "World Day to End Speciesism" organised by Yana Yana Association and Animalsave Ankara at Ankara Ka Atölye. In this event, I tried to explain what I understand when it comes to speciesism through how anti-speciesist ideologies define their actions. Afterwards, I roughly evaluated 4 common counter-arguments developed for the anti-speciesist struggle.

00:00 Who is Nilgün Engin?

01:30 Introduction of Animalsave Ankara and Yaşamdan Yana Association

11:15 Screening of Video Interview with Anita Krajnc

011:50 On Anita Krajnc

13:00 Who is Erhan Korkmaz?

15:05 About the Closing Speech

17:00 Introductory Paragraph: From A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

18:45 Introduction to Speciesism

19:35 Ways of Evaluating Actions

21:00 Example of Slavery

22:30 Example of Female Inequality

23:15 Anti-Speciesism

23:45 Argument 1: "The Anti-Speciesist Struggle is a Romantic Struggle"

25:30 Argument 2: "Anti-speciesists ignore human nature"

27:45 Argument 3: "Can anti-speciesist actions address so many social problems? The universe is not as orderly as you think, yours is to save the day"

33:45 Argument 4: "Anti-speciesism is an Individual Act"

37:00 Closing, Question and Answer Session

Together with Animal Save in Turkey, we organised an interview titled "Veganism and Philosophy". In this interview, we talked about the points where veganism and philosophy intersect, the importance of philosophy for the vegan movement, and how and in what ways we can criticise philosophers in history through veganism.

00:00 Who is Erhan Korkmaz and How does he relate to philosophy?

02:10 Relationship of the field with Philosophy

05:40 What are the Earliest Reflections of Veganism? Where is Veganism from a Historical Perspective?  

08:05 Hunting and Gathering

11:20 What was the diet of ancient tribes? How did they differ from today?

21:45 The Danger of Ecological Determinism

24:30 The Position of Today's Politicians 

27:45 What is the Importance of Philosophy in the Veganism Movement? What is Philosophy? 

31:25 How is the theoretical and practical distinction made within the veganism movement? What is the importance of this distinction? 

40:00 Position of the Researcher (Vegan/Navegan Researcher) in the Field 

45:00 Is Criticising Philosophers in the Context of Veganism an Anachronistic Attitude? 

50:15 The Necessity of Coming to Terms with History

51:45 Ways of Reading History   

54:35 Where Do We Position Ourselves While There Are Different Factions Within Veganism?

59:40 Resource Suggestions  

01:07:00 Final Words

On 4-5 November 2023, I made a presentation titled "Lost Faces: The Blindness of the Ethnographic Perspective towards Non-Human Actors" at the VI International Congress on Critical Debates in Social Sciences organised by Izmir Democracy University in Izmir. 

You can access the text and slides of the presentation from the "Events" tab. In this presentation, starting with the history of ethnography, I tried to trace the traces of anthropocentric understanding through a historical reading from the first ethnographic studies in history to the studies carried out until today. As a result, I discussed the possibility of Multispecies Ethnography and argued that the field needs a new methodology by exemplifying the results of anthropocentric understanding. I tried to explain as much as I could in a minimum time of 14-15 minutes - with optimum efficiency.

00:15 Introduction

00:30 Presentation Syllabus

01:10 History of Ethnography

02:20 Lewis Henry Morgan

03:00 Edward Burnett Tylor

03:30 Bronisław Malinowski

04:27 Alfred Radcliffe-Brown

04:53 Paradigmatic Break: The Position of the Researcher and the Researched

06:06 Researcher's Position

06:35 Position of the "Researched"

07:10 Transformation of Culture: Human - Nature Distinction

08:35 Transformation of the Field: Multispecies Ethnography

09:20 Ezgi Burgan, Semra Özlem Dişli

10:37 Hande Çiçek, Erhan Korkmaz

11:16 What Should We Do?

12:00 Conclusion

13:20 Closing

I made my presentation titled "Exposing Images of Photographic Violence to Non-Human Perpetrators in the Context of Vision Regimes and Speciesism: Animal Photojournalism and the Construction of Social Memory" at the 20th Annual METU Sociology Days on March 20, 2024.

You can access the text and slides of the presentation from the "Events" tab. In this presentation, I tried to bring a new perspective to the conventional understanding of photography by criticizing our ways of knowing/receiving photographic images through vision regimes - including non-human animals. To what extent does taking an anthropocentric attitude and attitude when photographing pain make us speciesist? I tried to answer these and many other questions of this importance.

00:00 Opening

02:05 Presentation Schedule

03:25 The Birth Story of Work

05:35 Discussion of What is Photographic Information: From the Knowing Subject to the Receiving Subject

09:30 Objective Pain from an Objective Perspective: Photographing Violence

13:15 The Issue of Anthropocentrism in Photography

14:23 Photographing the Pain of Non-Humans

17:40 Animal Photojournalism: We Animals Media Example

20:00 What Should We Do?

21:35 Question and Answer Part

25:20 Closing

I made my presentation titled "The Relationship between Ecological Struggle and Veganism" at the Intersectional Struggle Summit organized by Univeg on March 17, 2024.

You can access the text and slides of the presentation from the "Events" tab. In this presentation, I tried to determine the position of veganism within the ecological struggle and to criticize the anthropocentrism of ecological struggle fields such as deep ecology, social ecology and eco-feminism.

00:00 Opening

00:45 Presentation Schedule

03:10 The Question of Human Being

08:40 Human Relationship with the Environment

12:00 Ecological Struggle: Eco-Centered and Human-Centered Ethics

14:00 Ecological Approaches: Deep Ecology

17:12 Ecological Approaches: Social Ecology

19:50 Ecological Approaches: Eco-Feminism

22:10 Ecological Approaches: Eco-Anarchism

23:50 Veganism's Relationship with Humans and the Environment

26:55 Rethinking Ecological Approaches in the Context of Veganism

30:50 What Should We Do?

33:00 Pollen Ecology

35:45 Poison Cargo Vessel(s)

38:30 Animal Search and Rescue (H.A.R.K) Earthquake Example and AFAD

45:12 State Mechanism in Disaster Situations

47:50 Closing