Brainwave #3 Who's Afraid of Drag?

In this Brainwave session, Serkan Kasapoğlu takes you into the world of drag art and the contemporary political challenges it faces. This Brainwave explores drag as a global cultural practice and as an art form that unsettles fixed categories of gender, performance, and identity. From its diverse local histories to its contemporary manifestations, drag invites us to rethink how gender is embodied, staged, and contested across different cultural and political contexts.

Entrance to this programme is free, but due to limited capacity you need to register in advance.

The programme will open with a discussion on the philosophy of drag as an art of transformation: how drag destabilizes binaries, exaggerates norms, and creates spaces of resistance and play. Through case studies from around the world, we will trace how drag adapts to specific cultural traditions, and how performers reimagine gender and sexuality within their own social landscapes.

The seminar also addresses a pressing question of our time: why has drag become a target for the rising tide of the anti-gender movement and right-wing politics? We look at how growing authoritarian regimes censor drag and gender diversity, and what cultural fears drag stirs up in societies where rigid norms help keep power in place. Is drag inherently threatening? If so, to what? We will consider how drag unsettles state projects of national morality, heteronormativity, and cultural purity.

Finally, we will reflect on the broader implications of silencing drag and queer performance for representation, visibility, and freedom of cultural expression. By situating drag in the intersection of art, politics, and censorship, this seminar aims to illuminate why drag continues to be both a creative force and a political battleground.

Programme
16:30 – 16:40 | Interactive Opening
Mentimeter Activity: “Drag is...”
Participants share initial thoughts and definitions

16:40 – 17:00 | The Politics of Drag
Discussion on how and why drag is political and subversive
Anti-Gender Movement and the rising right
Philosophical frameworks: Who’s Afraid of Gender? (Judith Butler)

17:00 – 17:20 | Drag and Power Structures
Drag and patriarchy
Censoring Huysuz: Drag on Turkish TV and Infringement of Cultural Expression (upcoming in The Routledge Companion to Drag Studies)

17:20 – 17:35 | Drag Across Contexts
Mainstream drag versus alternative and local forms
Drag and colonialism
Indigenous and local drag traditions

17:35 – 17:45 | Artivism in Practice
Presentation of Superball materials and discussion on drag as artivism

17:45 – 18:15 | Q&A with Guest Speaker: Larina Grigia
Open discussion with audience participation

18:15 – 18:30 | Closing Performance
Drag show by Larina Grigia