Gender and Women’s Studies – Sabanci University

The Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) is based at Sabanci University in Istanbul. SU Gender undertakes research, education and awareness-raising activities in gender and women’s studies with a focus on gender equality in academia, education, memory, health, sexuality, migration and gender-based violence. It aims to create platforms that enable exchange, dialogue and solidarity between academia, civil society and the arts. Its Transformative Activism Programme brings together gender activists in a series of workshops designed to support their mental health and wellbeing and to explore the interconnections between their personal lives and their activism. They provide a space for respite and solidarity where activists can discuss collectively the physical, emotional and relational problems they encounter in their work and increase their individual and collective capacity to cope with trauma, exhaustion and burnout. SU Gender engages with previous participants to create a community of practice, undertake further research and produce a practical guide for NGOs and activists interested in integrating such practices into their work.