When
Deep Dish 10-08- Blessing Neoliberalism (*Free Pizza at this event!*)
Thursday, October 8, 2015 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
The University of Arizona, McClelland Park Building, 650 North Park Avenue, Room 402
Presenter: Dr. Zeynep K. Korkman, UA Department of Gender and Women's Studies
The occult idea of divine blessings is increasingly deployed to suggest that pious behaviors in business and family realms are mystically rewarded by material gain in contemporary Turkey. In this talk, I explore the connections between rhetorical uses of the trope of “blessings of business” and “blessings of children.” Following the trope of blessings as it traverses the intimate and economic spheres and stiches together neoliberal and neoconservative rationales, I show how heteronormative familialism is mobilized to increase economic profitability. Attending to the tensions between neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and the actual consequences of neoliberalization, I highlight the opportunities for subversion and resistance.
Zeynep K. Korkman is an assistant professor in the department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include transnational feminisms; cultural politics of secularism and religion; labor, intimacy, and affect; and feminized publics.