I was Principal Investigator of an AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) funded project ‘Aesthetics of Protest: Visual Culture and Communication in Turkey’ from 2016-2018 working with colleagues at Glasgow Caledonia University, University of Brighton and Bilgi University, Istanbul.

The project looks at protest, art, aesthetics, and social media . It examines the aesthetic elements of protest and considers the form and effects of participatory actions and dynamics in the call for change. As well as images, symbols, graffiti, forms of rhetoric, humour, and slogans, the project scrutinises the orchestration and flows of collective actions both online and in public spaces. The Gezi Park protests in Turkey of 2013 provide the context of our analysis of the nature of aesthetic action.

The project team is currently writing up the research findings. We have written a book (Open Access, see link below) and numerous journal articles.

Jenzen, O., Eslen-Ziya, H., Erhart, I. Korkut, U. and McGarry, A. (2020) ‘The Symbol of Social Media in Contemporary Protest’, Convergence,

McGarry, A., Erhart, I., Eslen-Ziya, H., Jenzen, O., and Korkut, U. (eds) (2019) The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. This book is open access and free to read…click on the link.

McGarry, A. Jenzen, O. Eslen-Ziya, H. Erhart, I. and Korkut, U. (2019): Beyond the Iconic Protest Images: the Performance of ‘Everyday Life’ on Social Media during Gezi Park Social Movement Studies 18(3): 284-304.

Eslen-Ziya, H., McGarry, A., Jenzen, O. Erhart, I., and Korkut, U. (2019) From Anger to Solidarity: The Emotional Echo Chamber of Gezi Park Protests. Emotion, Space and Society, 33.

Publications will be listed and linked here as they emerge. There are more in the pipeline!