Karakutu Association is officially established in 2014 to raise awareness on the past injustices and human rights violations in the belief that learning from the past is crucial for the search of justice, peace, and dialogue in society. Our primary area of work is collective memory and coming to terms with the past. Our mission as Karakutu is to share different points of view about past injustices and human rights violations with the society especially with young people to reveal the narratives of ignored, suppressed and marginalized parties by the official history.

As a voluntary and participatory organization, we conduct projects such as
● Memorialization projects for/with young people;
● Trainings and meetings in the area of dealing with past;
● Intercommunity historical dialogue projects
Karakutu,
● is independent of states, governments, and political parties,
● is against any discrimination based on race, language, religion, gender, political affiliation, and similar reasons,
● is against any kind of violence and militarism under all conditions,
● believes in the right of all creatures to live in fair conditions and problematizes any type of domination,
● is transparent to its volunteers and supporters,
● recognizes young people’s active participation and non-formal learning.

AREA / SUBJECT OF THE FELLOWSHIP

Collective Memory Studies, Coming to Terms with the Past, Human Rights, Urbanism, Content Development for Memory Journey Program, Implementation of Memory Walks (in English), Enhancement of Digital Media Platforms.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED FELLOWSHİP ACTIVITY

Karakutu Association offers two programme alternatives;

1. Memory Walks (in English)

Memory Walk is a part of a ‘Memory Journey Program.’ The program aims that young and adult people explore and question the injustices against the historically marginalized groups, based on religion, gender, ethnicity, or political view while strolling around the city and listening to the narratives of ‘places of memory’. Therefore, Memory Walks provide people with the opportunity of hearing silenced historical narratives and improving their critical thinking skills about the hegemonic narratives. The one-day-long interactive Memory Walks include indoor non-formal workshops and outdoor exploration of the places of memory with the secret codes.

The main tasks of this process are as follows:

  • To conduct research on “places of memory” of Memory Walks and collecting data (basically a literature review)
  • To review and develop some of the existing contents of Memory Walks in English
  • To prepare 2 or 3 Memory Walk in English

2. Enhancement of Digital Media Platforms

Karakutu, with the aim of enrichment and expanding the scope and visibility of its Digital Media Platforms (DMP), wishes to enhance the content and visuals of its DMP. Making advantage of the current creative and ‘popular’ podcasting, video making methods on social media platforms, Karakutu aims to accelerate its visibility and recognization on both Turkish and English speaking audiences.

The main tasks of this process are as follows:

  • To do creative visual documentation on “places of memory” of Memory Walks (photographing, filming, editing)
  • To prepare new contents for DMP of Karakutu in English such as podcasts, videos, interviews (in collaboration with the Karakutu staff)
  • To translate some of the existing contents of DMP Turkish to English

EXPECTED PROFILE

A fellow who is familiar with memory studies, history, cultural studies, conflict resolution, human rights activism, sociology, political science, architecture, urbanism and city planning could support the content development processes of Memory Journey Program and Digital Media Platforms. In addition to this, to have excellent communication, reading and writing skills in English is obligatory since the most crucial duties of the fellow would be to implement Memory Walks in English, collect relevant data for the contents, and the context of Digital Media Platforms.

Experience in content writing, photography and video shooting as well as in data visualization and visual storytelling would be an asset. Professional and/or volunteering experience in civil society organizations would facilitate the integration of the fellow to the workflow. As well as, knowledge and experience in gender studies would be helpful to the fellow since most of the Memory Walks of 2020 will be based upon gender issues.

Last but not least, basic reading and communication skills in Turkish would be an advantage since the significant amount of the materials of Karakutu are in Turkish.

CONDITIONS OF THE FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Karakutu has one full-time staff working five days a week between 09:30 - 17:30 and one part-time consultant who works two days a week. Memory Walks are mostly organized on weekends. Weekly off days are arranged according to Memory Walks and other activity plans. The office is closed on public holidays.

The fellow will be expected to be present four days a week between 09:30 - 17:30 at Karakutu office. Karakutu staff work in a shared Culture and Art Center at Tophane, near to Taksim. The fellow can conduct his/her fellowship activity in a common area of the office. A computer cannot be provided for the fellow but the fellow can use Karakutu’s other technical equipment (camera, voice recorder, etc.) responsively.

PROPOSED TIME FOR THE FELLOWSHIP

The fellowship activity shall take place either in the period of March 1 - May 31, 2020 or October 1 - May 31, 2021.