Rasim Erdem Avsar

r.avsar.1@research.gla.ac.uk

Research title: DRAMATURGIES OF GRIEF AND HOPE: CONTEMPORARY QUEER THEATRE IN TURKEY

Research Summary

My research focuses on onstage queer storytelling in Turkey as a form of political intervention. The research aims to offer insights into how queer theatre and queer storytelling can channel alternative models of activism and resistance, and create spaces for dialogue and solidarity in the face of repression applicable beyond the Turkish context. Research also focuses on the challenges and limitations of applying rights-based approaches, born out of western LGBTQ activist traditions, to non-western contexts.

The interdisciplinary research project ‘How can dramatized queer storytelling offer and alternative model of activism and public engagement to reshape debate on LGBTQI+ rights in authoritarian socio-political contexts?’ is awarded the Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith (LKAS) PhD Scholarship.

Research Interests

  • Queer studies and sexualities
  • Arts-based political intervention
  • Queer dramaturgy
  • Dramatic story-telling as public engagement
  • LGBTQI+ rights and rights-based approaches in non-western contexts

Publications

Avşar, R. E., Pearson, D., Murphy E. G., (2019) Playtext: And So My Face Became My Scar. In Collaborative Playwriting: Polyvocal Approaches from the EU Collective Plays Project (1st ed.) Routledge Publishing.

Avşar, R. E. (2018) Article: Disintegration of the Self: Establishing an anti-Cartesian Epistemology in Brecht’s Lehrstücke. Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy Journal, Issue 26.

Avşar, R. E. (2018) Article: Disintegration of the Self: Establishing an anti-Cartesian Epistemology in Brecht’s Lehrstücke. Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy Journal, Issue 26.

Avşar, R. E. (2018) Translation of a book chapter: Revma (1874): Space as the key element of the Greek komeidyllion. Auth. Kostas Karasavvidis. Time and Space in Theatre. Habitus Publishing.

Avşar, R. E. (2018) Translation of a book chapter: Sarah Daniels’ Beside Herself: The Inversion of Intertexts as a Strategy to Represent Women in Dramatic Place and Time. Auth. Arpine Mızıkyan Akfıçıcı. Time and Space in Theatre. Habitus Publishing.

Avşar, R. E. (2015) Article: Stories about and by the Poor: Sait Faik Abasıyanık’s Four Stories of the Same Shore. Theory of Law. Volume 2, Issue: 5.

Avşar, R. E. (2015) Playtext: #occupylove. In Cultural Interventions, Cultural Policy and Management Research Centre (KPY) Yearbook 2014-2015. Ed. Kevin Robins and Burcu Yasemin Şeyben. İstanbul Bilgi University Press.

Avşar, R. E., Şeyben, B. Y., (2014) Article: Home as a Public/Private Space: Female Characters in Good Things are On Our Side and Clouds May Wander. In PERFORMART ’14 / Performing Arts Conference Proceedings Book: Performing Arts and Public Space. Dakam Publishing.

Supervisors

Grants

The Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith PhD Scholarship

Additional Information

Practice as a playwright

My work as a playwright is political and often poetic in its language. 

I am fascinated with form and with the idea of queering dramatic realms and structures. I have shown work in Scotland, Turkey and Italy.

Awards

Kevin Elyot Award by the University of Bristol’s Theatre Collection (2019)

EU Collective Plays! International Playwriting Competition, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme (2017)

2017 Honours List of Eurodram (Network for Drama in Translation) for the Turkish translation of Midwinter by Zinnie Harris.

Affiliations

Affiliate Artist at UNESCO RILA, the University of Glasgow.