Where
Why
A special presentation by Elise Boyle Espinosa who has researched and worked with new educational institutions of the Rojava Revolution
The Rojava Revolution emerged amidst the power struggles of the Syrian Civil War in the diverse northeast of the country, and led to the establishment of de facto autonomous control. It has become known internationally in part thanks to the efforts of its defence forces in fighting Islamic State, but underlying such efforts is a deeper ideological ‘war’ against the authoritarian states it is preceded by, and capitalist modernity as a whole. Based on the teachings of Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned founding member of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) in Turkey and a symbolic figurehead of the Kurdish liberation movement, the revolution is founded on a belief in a ‘Democratic Nation’: a society based on women’s liberation, ecological principles, and pluralistic direct democracy.
Through five months of fieldwork in the Kurdish regions of Turkey (Bakur) and Iraq (Başûr), and Rojava itself, and along with her research partner Adam Ronan, our special presenter Elise Boyle Espinosa investigated the role of the new education system in building this new society. In this presentation she will describe what this education involves, how it has been implemented, and the impact it has had on the people of Rojava.