Şirin Tekeli Archive

The private papers of Şirin Tekeli (1944–2017) include her personal notes, essays, drafts of articles, letters, photo albums, invitations to events, ID cards, newsletters, reports and other documents relating to her work as an academic and activist. Tekeli studied political science in Paris and at the universities of Lausanne, Istanbul and Iowa. On graduating, she was hired to teach at the Faculty of Economics of Istanbul University from 1968. She obtained her doctorate in 1973 and her habilitation in 1978. She spent the academic year of 1979–1980 in France at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and built an early electronic database on election-related data in order to study the sociology of elections in urban areas. She resigned in 1981 to protest against political restrictions and began her career as a feminist activist and freelance translator and author. Tekeli took an active part in the feminist movement in Türkiye, raising awareness through campaigns and protests, and she participated in women’s associations, as reflected in her papers. The Cultural Ministry of France conferred the Ordre des Palmes académiques on Tekeli in 1996 in recognition of her work.