Forum:
Water Assemblies
Speculative Fictions
Ezgi Hamzaçebi
Salt Beyoğlu
![Multispecies Cat S Cradle Nasser Mufti Donna J Haraway Nasser Mufti, <i>Multispecies Cat’s Cradle</i> [Çok-Türlü Kedi Beşiği], 2011](/directus/media/thumbnails/multispecies-cat-s-cradle-nasser-mufti-donna-j-haraway-jpg-780-5000-false.jpg)
Nasser Mufti, Multispecies Cat’s Cradle, 2011
“Water represents relationality and interconnectedness. It flows between and within bodies, across spaces, and through time. Reflecting on water encourages us to think relationally—not just about physical bodies but also about bodies of stories and narratives. While language is a key tool for understanding, our bodily awareness reminds us of how language is deeply rooted in our material connections to the watery world. Knowledge arising from these bodily connections inherently carries an element of mystery or unknowability.”
As part of Water Assemblies, academic Ezgi Hamzaçebi will be leading a research group focused on speculative fiction as a method of inquiry.
Inspired by Donna Haraway, who describes her craft as multispecies storytelling in a feminist mode and believes that understanding the world involves living within stories, this research group invites participants to a series of workshops addressing diverse ways of knowing water through literature, cinema, contemporary art, and scientific inquiry. Centered on collective thinking and experimenting with different narrative worlds, the program aims to explore speculation not only as a mode of imagining future possibilities but also as a critical method for reinterpreting existing worlds and past narratives.
During the 9-month research process, participants will explore how water brings different ways of (re)thinking, (un)learning, and (un)knowing into productive conversation. They will discuss the works of writers, artists, and researchers who use speculative storytelling centered on water, creating an archive of speculative knowledge-production techniques. Simultaneously, they will develop their own speculative narratives and methods, contributing to the digital publication that will be released as part of Water Assemblies.
This research group is open to individuals from all backgrounds interested in the arts, critical theory, and ecology and who wish to discuss speculative narratives and world-building methods. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 12 participants. The first two workshops will take place on March 11 and 18 at Salt Beyoğlu, as part of the launch of Water Assemblies. After these intensive sessions, participants will meet once a month until November 2025. The schedule for these meetings will be arranged in consultation with participants, considering their availability. Participants are expected to commit to the program for the full 9-month duration. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
PROGRAM
March 11, 15.00-18.00
March 18, 15.00-18.00
The workshops will be accompanied by a series of public programs, featuring a talk by archaeologist and writer İsmail Gezgin on March 12 and the screening of Ali’nin Tabiatı [Ali’s Nature] (2020) on March 15.
Ezgi Hamzaçebi is a lecturer at Özyeğin University. She completed her master’s in Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University, with her thesis titled “The Literary Representation of the Non-Human: An Ecocritical Approach to Yere Düşen Dualar and Yeryüzü Halleri,” and received her PhD from the same institution with her dissertation “Promises of Monsters: Those Haunting Turkish Feminist Speculative Fiction.” Between 2017-2019, Hamzaçebi co-organized the conference series “Interdisciplinary Ecoethical Encounters” at Boğaziçi University. She has published articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals such as Feminist Tahayyül, Monograf, Metafor, and Kampfplatz, and contributed chapters to several books, including Anlatı Üzerine II: Hayatı Yeniden Kurmak (Livera, 2024), Turkish Ecocriticism: From Neolithic to Contemporary Timescapes (Lexington Books, 2020), Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film (Routledge, 2019), and Gaflet: Modern Türkçe Edebiyatın Cinsiyetçi Sinir Uçları (Metis, 2019). She is the co-editor of Sosyal Bilimler Ne İşe Yarar? (Boğaziçi University Press, 2015). Her research areas include animal and plant studies, ecocriticism, monster studies, and feminist speculative fiction. Beyond her academic work, she has collaborated with interdisciplinary platforms such as Garp Sessions, Proje Difüzyon, and digitaLABperformance.
As part of Water Assemblies, academic Ezgi Hamzaçebi will be leading a research group focused on speculative fiction as a method of inquiry.
Inspired by Donna Haraway, who describes her craft as multispecies storytelling in a feminist mode and believes that understanding the world involves living within stories, this research group invites participants to a series of workshops addressing diverse ways of knowing water through literature, cinema, contemporary art, and scientific inquiry. Centered on collective thinking and experimenting with different narrative worlds, the program aims to explore speculation not only as a mode of imagining future possibilities but also as a critical method for reinterpreting existing worlds and past narratives.
During the 9-month research process, participants will explore how water brings different ways of (re)thinking, (un)learning, and (un)knowing into productive conversation. They will discuss the works of writers, artists, and researchers who use speculative storytelling centered on water, creating an archive of speculative knowledge-production techniques. Simultaneously, they will develop their own speculative narratives and methods, contributing to the digital publication that will be released as part of Water Assemblies.
This research group is open to individuals from all backgrounds interested in the arts, critical theory, and ecology and who wish to discuss speculative narratives and world-building methods. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 12 participants. The first two workshops will take place on March 11 and 18 at Salt Beyoğlu, as part of the launch of Water Assemblies. After these intensive sessions, participants will meet once a month until November 2025. The schedule for these meetings will be arranged in consultation with participants, considering their availability. Participants are expected to commit to the program for the full 9-month duration. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
PROGRAM
March 11, 15.00-18.00
March 18, 15.00-18.00
The workshops will be accompanied by a series of public programs, featuring a talk by archaeologist and writer İsmail Gezgin on March 12 and the screening of Ali’nin Tabiatı [Ali’s Nature] (2020) on March 15.
Ezgi Hamzaçebi is a lecturer at Özyeğin University. She completed her master’s in Turkish Language and Literature at Boğaziçi University, with her thesis titled “The Literary Representation of the Non-Human: An Ecocritical Approach to Yere Düşen Dualar and Yeryüzü Halleri,” and received her PhD from the same institution with her dissertation “Promises of Monsters: Those Haunting Turkish Feminist Speculative Fiction.” Between 2017-2019, Hamzaçebi co-organized the conference series “Interdisciplinary Ecoethical Encounters” at Boğaziçi University. She has published articles and reviews in peer-reviewed journals such as Feminist Tahayyül, Monograf, Metafor, and Kampfplatz, and contributed chapters to several books, including Anlatı Üzerine II: Hayatı Yeniden Kurmak (Livera, 2024), Turkish Ecocriticism: From Neolithic to Contemporary Timescapes (Lexington Books, 2020), Animals, Plants, and Landscapes: An Ecology of Turkish Literature and Film (Routledge, 2019), and Gaflet: Modern Türkçe Edebiyatın Cinsiyetçi Sinir Uçları (Metis, 2019). She is the co-editor of Sosyal Bilimler Ne İşe Yarar? (Boğaziçi University Press, 2015). Her research areas include animal and plant studies, ecocriticism, monster studies, and feminist speculative fiction. Beyond her academic work, she has collaborated with interdisciplinary platforms such as Garp Sessions, Proje Difüzyon, and digitaLABperformance.
