Lisel Hintz

We just finished Week 121 of my MENA writing solidarity group.

I started it after the February 2023 earthquakes, we’ve held multiple 2-hour sessions each week since.

If you’re from or working on the region and looking for a supportive writing community, please reach out.

And tell your students!

This project was three years in the making (baking?). I am grateful to @fulyafelicity.bsky.social, Ronay Bakan, and Sefa Seçen for research assistance.

I very much hope political scientists will be inspired to dive deeper into entertainment media as a site where politics takes place. Afiyet olsun!

I then analyze how competition shows engage in "othering" women contestants who do not comply with the regime's ideals.

Think midriff-bearing, outspoken "villains" viewers love to hate.

All in a reality format that producers - aware of regime oversight - heavily curate.

I analyze how host-based shows engage in "modeling" regime-prescribed behavior for women.

Think of a Rachael Ray-esque "girl-next-door" type who provides tips and life hacks. Like how to please mothers-in-law by using their recipes and husbands by dressing up.

Channeling my past as a pastry chef, I draw on 600 hours of cooking show content to analyze "conservative gender edutainment.

I assemble a dataset of Turkish cooking shows (2002-2022) to demonstrate how media ownership shifts and crony capitalism shape regime-aligned content.

In the US in this week alone we've got a ramp up of authoritarian consolidation and cultural engineering. Everywhere from universities to sports teams

In @politicsgenderj.bsky.social I draw attention to entertainment media spaces in which those processes happen.

Like cooking shows.
buff.ly/5bezcnG

Heavy police presence on İstiklal on my walk to work this morning.

Reason: Funeral procession for Emine Ocak, one of the most visible members of the Saturday Mothers movement. They gathered peacefully each Saturday in this spot to demand justice for relatives "disappeared" in the Kurdish conflict.

I've been known to start article projects by playing with titles alone. 1/10 wouldn't recommend.

But in seriousness I think your question is important. Polarization shapes regime forces' perceptions of protesters as pick-your-villain. And it shapes protester perceptions of regime forces' loyalty.

Good question. I think it depends largely on protester calculations of how they'll be received.

A PhD civ-mil colleague was working on security forces' defection during the Rose Revolution - i.e., take the rose or use the gun.

I can't believe he didn't take my suggestion to title it Guns N' Roses

So much going on, it’s tough to take in.

If you need something a bit lighter still want to keep up with politics, this may be just the thing.

I discuss the role of entertainment media in gender construction, autocratization, and foreign policy with the excellent @turkeyrecap.bsky.social

Lots of speculation on how/why Colbert’s show was cancelled.

I distinctly remember giving a presentation on media capture in early Fall 2024. Audiences were skeptical that my insights from Turkey - or those of my panelists from India and Venezuela - had anything to do with the US.

Ah well.

This looks fantastic, congratulations!

That’s incredibly generous, thank you Howard. I appreciate you sharing this!

I've been a huge fan of @turkeyrecap.bsky.social from the outset. It's an outstanding independent news source on Turkey.

So it was an extra bonus to be able to chat about a bunch of my projects. And to be able to connect my work on media to many of the (rapidly!) unfolding political developments.

LIVE SOON: Media and politics in ‘New Turkey’ with Lisel Hintz Starting Jul 14 at 9:00 AM EDT

🎙️Announcement!

Today, we're hosting a live webcast with @liselhintz.bsky.social, assist. prof of international relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS.

We'll cover the changing media and political landscape in Turkey. Audience questions welcome.

Join us at 0900 EDT / 1300 UTC / 1600 TRT:

LIVE SOON: Media and politics in ‘New Turkey’ with Lisel Hintz Starting Jul 14 at 9:00 AM EDT

Lots of work on news media and autocratization. Less on entertainment media. Yet governments invest heavily in both policing and producing pop culture content.

Join me tomorrow July 14 at 9am ET/4pm Turkey time to discuss how autocrats use TV, videos, music, etc.

open.substack.com/live-stream/...

LIVE SOON: Media and politics in ‘New Turkey’ with Lisel Hintz Starting Jul 14 at 9:00 AM EDT

If you missed my IPC talk but are interested in why the Turkish government is waging war on the culture industry as part of its wider crackdown, join me live on Monday 9am ET, 4pm Turkey time @turkeyrecap.bsky.social.

Bring your questions!

open.substack.com/live-stream/...

For Turkey, the ‘New’ Middle East Is Cause for Concern Israel’s war with Iran signaled the latest shift toward a new regional order that Turkey finds undesirable. Ankara is responding accordingly.

Great @sinemadar.bsky.social piece for @wpr.bsky.social

Turkey is riding high... and has plenty to worry about

www.worldpoliticsreview.com/turkey-middl...

Thank you IPC for organizing, and @senemaydndzgit.bsky.social for hosting.

A goal of mine is to audio-visualize the political science toolkit. Here I presented a new dataset of 11,165 regime videos compiled with @draege.bsky.social. Along with our analysis, we make the dataset available

Excellent piece. On Monday with @turkeyrecap.bsky.social I'll dive deeper into how the war on Turkey's culture industry supports broader authoritarianism. I'll try to flesh out the role Gezi might have in all of this, and the AKP tools used not only to police but also to produce media.

Stay tuned!

Thank you so much for sharing and for the kind words, Gönül!

Huge congratulations Rana, I can't wait to read and cite this!

There's a lot going on in Turkey's politics right now. The repression rate is ratcheting up.

I aim to provide insights with a new dataset on populist audiovisual strategies. Please join me at IPC this Thursday at 11am.

Honored to be hosted by @senemaydndzgit.bsky.social

forms.gle/6BRkXR3439LKV7…

You can contact me via email. My address is on my university and personal websites

If you’re a PhD student from or working on MENA, or if you are advising MENA students who could benefit from a supportive online working space, please reach out.

We’ve had dozens of PhD students from Turkey alone finish their dissertations, apply for grants and jobs, revise article submissions.

Tomorrow begins Week 119 of the Zoom writing group I started post-2023 earthquakes. What are we?

*Students and scholars of all levels/fields
*Expanded to include those from or working on MENA
*8-10 sessions/week, join any/all
*Solidarity + structure for writing tasks

Interested? Please reach out!

Totally understood :) I agree he’s lovely and follow him closely for insight into the Kurdish movement. Our Turkey network is full of fantastic, smart, dedicated people :)

I will if I can! It’s crazy because we’re co-authors but Harun and I have never met in person. He made an argument in a (pandemic-era) webinar about the AKP testing out repression tactics against Kurds and I was like: I’m writing about that too! I emailed him and the project started.

With @harunercan.bsky.social, we argued the AKP initially didn't risk public protest by arresting CHP mayors. We argued permissive prejudice allowed such arrests against pro-Kurdish mayors. We suggested after 2023 elex, CHP might face tactics honed against Kurds.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Thanks so much for your interest! Your ayran and dragonfruit smoothie article helped give me confidence to connect food to politics in this context. Great work!