Can Romantic Love and Catastrophe Co-Exist?: Dating in post-earthquake Hatay.
The 2023 earthquake devastated multiple cities, with Hatay bearing a lot of the destruction. The city does not seem like a city anymore, rather it is a space in transition, slowly being rebuilt. Displacement has reshaped social life, neighborhoods have changed the pace of their everyday life. Ethnographical and anthropological research in the area reveals the struggles young people face, as they try to navigate the new reality. Aspirations for a different future exist alongside the constraints of daily life. Life moves forward, while young people grapple with the lack of social spaces and the uncertainties of settling down in a weakened Hatay. The struggling economy compounds these challenges, while traditional gender norms persist. Men find it harder to fulfill expected provider roles, and women continue to face rigid expectations of prescribed femininity. This talk explores the question of practicing and understanding romantic love in unprecedented times. Does catastrophe reshape the experience of love, or does love remain unchanged? While the Western world debates a shift toward individualized love, what can be said about love among the rubble?
Dagmar Nared is a PhD student and junior researcher at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana. She is currently interning at SU Gender while conducting fieldwork in Hatay. She holds two Master's degrees—one in Sociology from the University of Oxford and another in Anthropology from the University of Ljubljana. Her research interests focus on gender and visual anthropology, combining these fields to explore the emotive and affective aspects of everyday life.