Academia and authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey: the embodied consequences of the ‘peace petition’

ABSTRACT

In January 2016, 2212 academics have signed a petition to criticise human rights violations in Kurdish cities, and faced grave consequences as a result. By presenting the experiences of six dismissed signatory academics, this article aims to show the effects of authoritarian neoliberal policies on higher education institutions. After demonstrating the AKP government’s response to the petition, it accounts for the ways in which authoritarian neoliberalism in Turkey responds to its critics, the strategies that it employs to discipline critical academics, and its effects on these individuals and on the Turkish academia as a whole.

KEYWORDS:

• Authoritarian neoliberalism
• online petition
• governmentality
• higher education
• Academics for Peace Initiative
• Turkey

Acknowledgment

I want to thank Isaura Castelao-Huerta for all her help, as well as for her trust in me. I would also like to thank Oscar Javier Maldonado Castañeda, the anonymous referees and the editorial team of the journal for their helpful comments. Finally, I would like to thank all peace petitioners for standing for what is right.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Serhat Tutkal

Serhat Tutkal is a PhD candidate in Human and Social Sciences at the National University of Colombia and he is part of the research group entitled ‘Colombian group of media discourse analysis’ (Grupo Colombiano de Análisis del Discurso Mediático). He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Ankara University. His research is concerned with political violence and the ways in which it is legitimized or delegitimized. He is especially interested in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict and the Colombian conflict.