Stanford Humanities Center
International Visitors Program 10th Anniversary
Featuring a Preview Screening of a Documentary by Mehmet Mim Kurt, 2018–19 FSI-SHC International Visitor and 2018–19 Christopher Family International Visitor
Seven students and a cat are looking for an alternative education model in a provincial town in Turkey. The film is the story of their encounters and transformations, a visual tale that questions the possibility of critical pedagogy and emancipation in an oppressive and polarized environment. The Seven Doors deals with a local story from a universal perspective. Instead of “our values," it questions our present through universal concepts. While criticizing the established order, it also imagines possible alternatives. The Seven Doors is a metaphor for free thinking.
This free screening celebrates 10 years of the FSI-Stanford Humanities Center International Visitors Program. The film will be accompanied by a Q&A with the director and producer, with a reception to follow. All are invited to attend. RSVP >>
About the Filmmakers
Mehmet Kurt is a scholar, filmmaker, and human rights activist from Turkey. His research lies at the intersection of political science, sociology, and political ethnography with a specific focus on political Islam and civil society in Kurdish Turkey and among the Turkish diaspora in Europe. He examines the relationship between state policy and non-state actors to better understand Islamist extremism, its political, social, and economic grounds, and its influences on the masses in comparative perspective. He is currently an FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor and Christopher Family International Visitor at Stanford University.
Yusuf Kurt is a film producer, youth worker, and the general coordinator of a UNICEF funded Project, the Mesopotamia Circus and Street Art Festivals. He has has produced a dozen of well received documentary films displaying the everyday lives of ordinary people on the borderlands of Turkey, Syria and Iraq. His films have appeared on national and international festivals, received numerous awards, and have been screened on television.
Since 2009, the Stanford Humanities Center—in collaboration with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)—has brought high profile international scholars to Stanford for short-term residencies. It was the vision of former Humanities Center director Aron Rodrigue and then FSI director Coit Blacker to strengthen Stanford's global connections with the humanities and social sciences. Visitors are fully integrated into campus life for the duration of their residencies, leading sections in Stanford undergraduate and graduate classes, giving lectures and presentations on their areas of expertise, and carrying out joint projects with Stanford colleagues. Over the past 10 years, the program has facilitated visitorships for distinguished academics from some 29 countries, representing more than 50 institutions. It has fostered numerous cross-cultural scholarly connections including a visit to Indonesia by Stanford International Policy Studies graduate students, an African Studies course taught at the University of Hong Kong by a Stanford comparative literature professor, as well as an array of co-authored publications.
Learn more about this year's International Visitors >>
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