The circulation of concepts through translation: The case of queer in activist and academic contexts in Türkiye
NETWORK II International Colloquium on the Circulation of Ideas, Concepts, Works and Other Things, İzmir, Turkey, 16 - 18 September 2026, pp.1, (Summary Text)
- Publication Type: Conference Paper / Summary Text
- City: İzmir
- Country: Turkey
- Page Numbers: pp.1
- Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
Intellectual and cultural life is fundamentally shaped by the circulation of ideas, theories, and concepts across different contexts, which is a process leading to the production and development of knowledge (Said, 1983, p.226). However, such circulation entails complex negotiations, transformations, and rearticulations. In this respect, translation emerges as a tool to transfer and reconfigure the theories and concepts in circulation (Susam-Sarajeva, 2006). The concept of queer provides a conspicuous case to examine these dynamics. Emerging from a specific Anglo-American sociohistorical context, queer was historically employed as a derogatory term before being strategically reclaimed by LGBTQ+ activists and scholars as a category of political resistance and theoretical intervention (Jagose, 1996). As the concept has traveled beyond its original context, its meanings, political implications, and epistemological assumptions have been inevitably reconfigured through its encounter with a different linguistic, cultural, and ideological environment in Türkiye.
In this scope, this study examines the circulation of queer into Turkish through translation, focusing on how the concept has been transferred, negotiated, and rearticulated within local activist and academic contexts. To this end, I will trace the concept of queer in Kaos GL magazine, starting with its early years of publication (1994), and focus on specific non-literary works on queer/ queer theory published in the magazine. Rather than approaching the translation of queer as a neutral linguistic transfer into Turkish, I will conceptualize it as a productive site where theories and concepts are actively reconstructed. Employing Şebnem Susam-Sarajeva’s (2006) critique and expansion of Edward Said’s framework (1983), which foregrounds translation as a constitutive force in the circulation of theories, I argue that the translation of queer into the Turkish political, cultural, and activist context is a process of theoretical production. Moreover, this translational act also provides a democratic platform for Turkish activists and academics to participate in constructing new conceptual vocabularies, negotiating local sexual and gender categories, and producing alternative narratives that challenge both universalist assumptions and culturally essentialist understandings of sexuality. To this end, this study also aims to unravel the debates and discussions around the translation of queer, which have contributed to the production, circulation, and localization of queer knowledge in Türkiye.
Keywords: Circulation of concepts, queer, translation, activism