Dr. Hafza Girdap

Dr. Hafza Girdap is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Hofstra University and the spokesperson for Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST). She received her PhD in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Stony Brook University in New York. Her research focuses on gender, race, migration, racialization and identity, human and women’s rights in Muslim-majority contexts, as well as the integration and adaptation processes of Muslim immigrant women, with particular attention to the redefinition of their cultural identities.

In addition to her academic work, Dr. Girdap serves as a non-resident research fellow in the Gender Program at the European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS) and is a co-founder of Set Them Free, a gender-based advocacy platform. She was the first elected Chair and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Muslim+ Feminists Caucus within the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA), and she is also an active member of the Sister-to-Sister Committee within Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS).

In her research, Dr. Girdap actively incorporates the voices of women affected by conflict, examining their strategies for coping with challenges such as social discrimination, oppression, and violations of fundamental rights. By framing women’s redefinition of their identities as a form of agency, her work highlights the complexity of identity negotiation processes while questioning epistemic dominance and contributing to alternative forms of knowledge production.

In the field of women’s rights advocacy, Dr. Girdap has spoken at and organized events for panels at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UN CSW), centering women’s experiences and needs. She also mentors young people, preparing them to actively participate as researchers and speakers in these global forums.

Latest by Hafza Girdap

Commentaries

Mahsa Amini: Women’s bodily autonomy in the context of Islamism and far-right populism November 23, 2022

Right-wing populism, political Islam, and the Istanbul Convention July 17, 2021.

Book Reviews

The Turkish Malaise – A Critical Essay April 6, 2022

Liberal Roots of Far Right Activism – The Anti-Islamic Movement in the 21st Century January 24, 2022