Elif Genc

Elif Genc is a PhD student in Politics at the New School for Social Research and an Adjunct Professor at Marymount College in Middle Eastern politics in NYC. She also teaches Western political thought and revolution at St. John’s University. She is also an activist in the Kurdish women's social movement in Canada and the USA. She has worked closely for years with the Kurdish diaspora and has recently been researching on the oral histories and lived experiences of Kurdish refugees in Toronto particularly focusing on the past violence and trauma of the women of the community. Her current research interests focus on the women guerrilla of the Kurdish social movement and the role that violence plays in contemporary armed struggle and in bringing about social and political change particularly in the recently declared autonomous regions of Kurdistan both in Turkey and Syria -- specifically the role that women are playing in these armed movements against state totalitarianism and dictatorship.