Gender and Conflict: Kurdish Narratives

This event explores how gender, culture, literature, and practices of writing both shape—and are shaped by—Kurdish lifeworlds. The invited speakers approach these themes from diverse perspectives: some adopt a contemporary political lens, while others draw on archival research. Together, their contributions will spark conversations about the role of culture, literature and writing in times of conflict.

You're invited to join a drinks reception after the event.

Meet our chair and speakers:

Dr Dilar Dirik is a writer and independent researcher, currently based in Germany. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. From 2019–23, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford. Her book, "The Kurdish Women’s Movement: History, Theory, Practice" (Pluto Press 2022), translated into Catalan and Slovenian, is an in-depth ethnography of the revolutionary women’s struggle in Kurdistan. Dilar has left academia and focuses on political education and internationalist alliance-building.

Dr Farangis Ghaderi is lecturer in Gender and Kurdish Studies and the director of the Centre for Kurdish Studies at the University of Exeter, UK. She has published extensively on Kurdish literature, poetry, translation, and Kurdish women. She is associate editor of Kurdish Studies Journal and the Principal Investigator of the Kurdish Digital Archive project at Exeter.

Dr Hakan Sandal-Wilson is Assistant Professor of Gender, Peace and Security at the Department of Gender Studies. He is a political sociologist whose teaching and research explore how gender and sexuality intersect with democracy, conflict, and ethnic and religious difference. His work focuses on the Middle East and North Africa and is grounded in a commitment to social justice, inclusive democracy, and critical engagement with power.

Dr Elif Sarican is a writer, editor, and translator who works with cultural and educational institutions globally. As an independent researcher, she has contributed to parliamentary inquiries and curated artists' archives. She is an author of the edited volume She Who Struggles: Revolutionary Women Who Shaped The World, guest edited Barnard College's special issue 'Rage, Struggle, Freedom: Politics of Hope and Love', and a translator of The Purple Colour of Kurdish Politics: Women Politicians Write from Prison. Based in London, she is the Education Manager and head of the online Academy of Left Book Club, a historic radical publisher in the UK established in 1936.