About this Event
Join us for a brand-new 5-week seminar series led by Gizem Dik, an MSt student in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality at the University of Oxford.
With an academic background in History, Psychology, and Comparative Literature—and experience working across European and Islamic art history—she brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the relationship between visual culture, politics, and historical memory. Each week, we dive into the powerful relationship between visual culture, political propaganda, resistance movements, and historical memory—through films, key texts, and guided discussion.
This series is designed for anyone curious about how art and cinema shape the way we understand war, colonialism, power, and liberation.
What to Expect Each Week
(DECEMBER 2025) Week 1 — War, Anti-War Discourse & Propaganda
How do states use imagery, film, and literature to justify war?
We look at representations of soldiers, the machinery of propaganda, and artistic responses that challenge the glorification of violence.
Film: Paths of Glory — Stanley Kubrick
Readings: Wilfred Owen, Ezra Pound, Nazım Hikmet
(JANUARY 2026) Week 2 — Colonial Mindset, Imperial Violence & Representation
Understanding the cultural and psychological foundations of empire.
We examine how colonial powers portrayed themselves and the people they ruled, and how violence was justified and aestheticised.
Film: Apocalypse Now — Francis Ford Coppola
Readings: Thomas Pakenham, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling
(THIS SESSION, FEBRUARY 2026) Week 3 — Decolonisation, Resistance & Revolutionary Imagery
How does art contribute to anti-colonial struggle?
This session explores guerrilla movements, ethics of resistance, and the role of cinema in shaping revolutionary identity.
Film: The Battle of Algiers — Gillo Pontecorvo
Readings: Mahmoud Darwish, Frantz Fanon
Week 4 — Fascism, Nazism & Art as Propaganda
A deep look into how totalitarian regimes crafted their visual language to control society.
We discuss spectacle, mass choreography, myth-making, and the aesthetics of power.
Film: Triumph of the Will — Leni Riefenstahl
Materials: Nazi visual archives, Toby Clark’s Art of Propaganda, Bertolt Brecht
Week 5 — Palestine, Oppression & Comparative Frameworks
An analytical (not equivalential) discussion connecting structures of occupation, surveillance, and resistance across different historical moments.
We explore how contemporary Palestinian cinema expresses struggle and hope.
Film: Omar — Hany Abu-Assad
Readings: Mahmoud Darwish
Why Join This Series?
- Open to all backgrounds—no prior knowledge required
- Learn to “read” films, images, and historical narratives critically
- Engage in guided discussions in a supportive environment
- Connect global histories with contemporary issues
- Gain interdisciplinary perspectives from art history, politics, and cultural studies
About the Organiser
Turken Foundation UK
Established in 2015, TURKEN Foundation UK is a broad and diverse body that aims to serve students in further and higher education across the UK. It is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that aims to help newcomer students adapt to British culture, lifestyle, the city itself and the institutions. It prepares a conducive environment for students to thrive and makes their studies more effective. It improves students' lives in an ever-changing, complex global society and fulfils their needs for housing, transportation, communication and all other requirements related to their education. In September 2019, Turken Foundation UK moved a new office, which will be a central meeting point for newcomers and current university students in London.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
TURKEN UK, Ruskin House, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
