Episode 5: Identifying with Each Side & with a Community that Transcends Sides

The second part of Ray & Ezra’s conversation with Lerna Ekmekcioglu focuses on the unique insights Lerna offers, as a scholar of Ottoman and post-Ottoman societies and as a Turkish Armenian, on the campus crisis that occurred in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Remarkably, Lerna is able to identify strongly with each side of this conflict (and with members of the campus community who identify strongly with each side), but the strongest identification is with the larger institution— MIT— and its potential for bridging and transcending seemingly irreconcilable divides. The discussion also adds new angles on key ideas from episode 3:

1. Inclusion failure
2. Primary identities (vs. university roles and identities)
3. Bonding in response to threat

We’re e ...