Robin van Oene (2014)
I conducted an ethnographic study in 2014 on the changing organizational tactics of the City’s LGBTI equal rights movement in the wake of the Gezi protests, focusing on the (paradoxical) relation between the core values shaping the movement and its strategic goals.
My stay at the NIT was of great importance for the starting phase of my research. Using their premise in Istiklal Cd. I was always close to my respondents’ habitat. It significantly eased my arrival in the city, as I could directly focus on the core, namely my research. Besides that, the people making the NIT the great place it is, has been there either for advice, contacts or just a listening ear throughout my stay in Istanbul and after.
Currently I’m living in Amman (where the Netherlands Institute was closed due to budget cuts – a great loss), studying Arabic and volunteering for a local Human Rights NGO.