After a decade in the Syrian civil war, mass migration and resettlement of Syrian refugees are still high on the political agendas of many countries. Turkey has become the most refugee-hosting country, which has raised the issues of possibilities of living together on various levels. Unfortunately, these possibilities are usually constructed with a dualistic understanding of the identities of immigrants and nationals. The positioning of the immigrant identity as the ultimate Other has fallen prey to unidimensional and dualistic understanding. The identities and cultural values in question have always been treated as though they occupy the opposite poles of a vertical spectrum. İstanbul Bilgi University is hosting the exhibition titled “The Other Stories” to address the phenomenon of migration through its various dimensions from December 16, 2021 to February 7, 2022 at santralistanbul Campus Energy Museum. With this collaborative art project organized by BİLGİ Center for Migration Research in collaboration with different institutions that are active in the fields of migration and art, we have invited 50 artists from Turkey and abroad valuable contributions for an art exhibition on multidimensional and imbricated nature of human stories, revolving around human mobility. We realize that it is essential to orient our focus away from dualistic understanding of identities to just democratic understanding of plurality and the fragility of our stories.

relationship between art and human mobility that we started with the exhibition. The podcast series will explore this relationship under three main themes. Under the first theme, there will be interviews with academics, artists and intellectuals on the specific issues relating to the effects of art on consciousness-raising and policy making about immigration, solidarity, and living together with immigrants. Under the second theme, there will be interviews with NGO professionals, artists, and scholars on good practices and lessons learned relating to art and the integration of immigrants globally. Under the third theme, we will talk about these types of good practices within the Turkish context. Under each theme, after answering Goksel’s specific questions, every interviewee will be asked to tell a story about their encounters with the Other through art. Greeting, storytelling, and rhetoric can be effective tools to do justice to difference and with these podcast meetings, we are looking forward to listening to these encounters with difference through art.

Podcast Producer:

Dr. Gulay Ugur Goksel

BREDEP Project/The Other Stories Exhibition Coordinator

International Relations Department

Istanbul Bilgi University

Gulay.goksel@bilgi.edu.tr