Masculinities, Mobility, and the Making of Place with Janine Su

In this episode of Heritage Türkiye, we stroll through Istanbul's Sultanahmet neighbourhood with Dr. Janine Su, a social anthropologist whose work explores socio-spatial mobility and contemporary masculinities in Türkiye. Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic engagement in Istanbul's Old City, Dr. Su reflects on the early experiences that first brought her to Istanbul and how Sultanahmet became the heart of her doctoral research at UCL. Dr. Su takes us behind the scenes of her fieldwork, sharing how she builds relationships, navigates changing urban dynamics, and follows the everyday lives of the young men who became central to her research. We discuss how her focus on masculinities emerged, the current conversations shaping this rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, and how concepts such as sıla, gurbet, and garip help illuminate questions of belonging, displacement, and identity in Turkey today.