Emek Ergun, Ph.D.
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It is common to think of feminism from a strictly Western perspective, but the idea of promoting equality for all genders is a global effort, with unique traits in different environments. This season’s final Personally Speaking presentation, “How Feminism is Globalized: The Role of Translation in Cross-Border Exchanges,” features research by Emek Ergun, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Global Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. Ergun’s award-winning book, Virgin Crossing Borders: Feminist Resistance and Solidarity in Translation tells the story of a traveling feminist book translated by Ergun herself: Hanne Blank’s Virgin: The Untouched History (2007) about the western histories of virginity. The translation was transplanted across the Atlantic to Turkey in 2008. Ergun’s book aims to move the conversation on translation from the margins to the center of thinking on global justice movements. It also demonstrates how translation contributes to the political project of feminisms by enabling retellings and exchanges of feminist knowledge across borders. Her uniquely interdisciplinary model, simultaneously attends to the subjective, local, and global aspects of feminist encounters taking place in translation. The book asks how feminists imagine and practice transnational connections, eye-to-eye dialogues, and egalitarian collaborations across national, linguistic, and cultural borders infused with racial fears, nationalistic defense mechanisms, and colonial arrogance.
Emek Ergun, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Global Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC Charlotte. Her first monograph, Virgin Crossing Borders: Feminist Resistance and Solidarity in Translation was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2023. Virgin Crossing Borders received the Middle East Studies Association’s (MESA) 2024 Fatema Mernissi Book Award, given to the best work in studies of gender, sexuality, and women’s lived experience. Ergun is currently writing her second book, currently titled, An Introduction to Feminist Translation (Routledge). She is also the co-editor of Feminist Translation Studies (Routledge, 2017) and the 5th edition of Feminist Theory Reader (Routledge, 2020). Additionally, Ergun is a feminist translator and her most recent published translations include the Turkish translation of Octavia Butler’s classic novel Kindred (Ithaki Press, 2019) and the English co-translation of The Purple Color of Kurdish Politics (Pluto Press, 2022). She also recently completed the Turkish translation of I’m Afraid of Men (Random House, 2018), the award-winning book by Canadian trans writer and artist of color Vivek Shraya, which was generously supported by an NC Humanities Fellowship. Read more about Dr. Ergun.
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Event Facts, Parking and Accessibility
Date: Thursday, March 27
Time: 5:15 p.m., with a light reception at 4:15 p.m.
Location: J. Murrey Atkins Library, Halton Room
9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223
Please note our new venue, day and time!
Open to the public at no charge
Parking: pats.charlotte.edu; The two closest parking locations are the Cone Deck and the Union Deck adjacent to the Popp Martin Student Union. (Look for arrows on the map.) Please read about the library’s accessibility support and contact chess-events@charlotte.edu if you have an accessibility issue directly related to Personally Speaking.
Now in its 15th Season, the Personally Speaking published-expert series highlights the recent research findings of our talented faculty. Presenters have each been selected by a committee of their peers to represent a sampling of the broad interdisciplinary work being conducted within the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences. Presenters also have a knack for sharing their personal inspirations in a way that thoroughly engages their audiences—who are invited to reciprocate after the presentation. In this way, the College aims to build new connections between our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the Charlotte community. The series is a partnership of the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences with J. Murrey Atkins Library. Presentations may be recorded, but are usually not livestreamed.
