Articles by: Christopher Houston

Author Biography:

Christopher Houston is a Professor of Anthropology at Macquarie University, Sydney. He has carried out fieldwork in Turkey on Islamic social movements, nationalism, urban processes in Istanbul, political activists, and on the Kurdish issue.

The Metro to Üsküdar

Arena Quarterly no. 24

Christopher Houston

Dec 2025

A hardware lane on Istanbul’s Asian side is a witness to thirty years of Erdogan’s rule, now coming to an end, as class, tradition and religion shift.

Hijabi Atheists, the Artists, and Infidel Birds…

Arena Quarterly no. 18

Christopher Houston

Jun 2024

As Istanbul rejects Erdoğan, its recent history of dissent, where poets, draft refusers and post-theist Muslims perch.

Once Were Revolutionaries: Memory and activism—my father and fieldwork in Turkey

Arena Quarterly no.12

Christopher Houston

Dec 2022

I remember the sweet smell of the state Caykur tea factory, intimate, like perfume in the air; and the shabby suitcase traders from the ‘East’ in towns along the way, selling Russian cameras, samovar teapots, and handicrafts in makeshift harbour bazaars.
"The Kurds, the Russians, and democracy in Turkey

Turkey in Syria

Arena Magazine no. 163

Christopher Houston

Dec 2019

The Kurds, the Russians, and democracy in Turkey
"The Kurds, the Russians, and democracy in Turkey In Turkey, perhaps more than most other…

Turkey in Syria

Arena Magazine no. 163

Christopher Houston

Dec 2019

PDF available from Informit

The Kurds, the Russians, and democracy in Turkey In Turkey, perhaps more than most other places, the significance of events is hard to grasp. One reason for this is the sheer number of major, often extreme, politically inspired actions: the murder of the Appeals Court judges in 2004; the huge Republic protests in support of state secularism in 2007; the massive Gezi Park protests against urban development in 2013; the shocking suicide bombings in Suruc…
"Cultural supremacism or shared ordinariness?

Before the Next Massacre, by Christopher Houston

Arena Magazine no. 161

Christopher Houston

Aug 2019

Cultural supremacism or shared ordinariness?
"Cultural supremacism or shared ordinariness? In multireligious societies like Australia, what should be the purpose…

Before the next Massacre

Arena Magazine no. 161

Christopher Houston

Aug 2019

PDF available from Informit

Cultural supremacism or shared ordinariness? In multireligious societies like Australia, what should be the purpose of critiquing Islamophobia? Is it to reassure anxious white Australians that there is nothing to fear from real Islam, and that rhetoric about its supposed intrinsic violence, sexism or hostility to other religions is misinformed and racist?