Teaching and Learning Anthropology

Co-written by bachelor students and their lecturer, this commentary is a critical reflection on the Materiality and Urban Politics (SOC387) course taught at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in the summer of 2022. The course unfolded during a time of political unrest at Boğaziçi following the appointment of a new president, which brought the campus under a state of police siege. In this context, SOC387 explored relations between the material and the urban/political through democratic and inclusive pedagogical approaches. Bringing together reflections on the sociopolitical context in which the course took place, classroom pedagogies, and students’ commentaries, we reflect on how the course helped participants redefine their sense of belonging to, and engagement with, Istanbul’s urban/political environment during a time of perceived disempowerment and “crisis of democracy” in Turkey. By exploring the productive tensions between urban space, politics, and democratic pedagogy, this commentary argues that teaching and learning in and about the city can be cathartic in reinforcing participants’ will to act on and contribute to urban politics.