Film and Panel Discussion

"Coffee Futures" (22 min., color, 2009, Turkish with English subtitles) is the first in a series of short ethnographic films that explore contemporary Turkish politics through the prism of the everyday life of women. The film weaves together the Turkish custom of coffee fortune telling with Turkey's decades-long attempt to join the European Union, revealing the textures of a society whose fate has long been nationally and internationally debated. It investigates the collective psychology of anticipating an uncertain national future.

The U-M expert panel (Kathryn Babayan, History; Zeynep Gursel, director, producer and adjunct assistant research scientist, IRWG; and Fatma Muge Gocek, Sociology and Women's Studies; will respond to the film. Zeynep Gursel will describe its making.