E-mail: buraktasdizen[at]gmail[dot]com
Web: https://buraktasdizen.com

11.2022 — 03.2023 & 05.2023 — Ongoing (part-time)
Project Assistant at Koç University

Online Crowdfunding in Arts, Culture, and Media Industries

TÜBİTAK 3005 Project

01.2020 — 03.2022 (2 years 2 months, full-time)

Research Fellow and Project Coordinator at Orient-Institut Istanbul, Max Weber Foundation
IRSSC, Knowledge Unbound (BMBF)

08.2019 — 02.2020 (7 months)

Grant Recipient Research Fellow at Mekânda Adalet Derneği [Center for Spatial Justice]
MADAraştırma 2019

04.2016 — 12.2019 (3 years 9 months, full-time)

Research Assistant at Özyeğin University
Department of Industrial Design, Faculty of Architecture and Design

September 2018 — Ongoing

Ph.D. candidate in Design, Technology and Society, Özyeğin University

Thesis: Assembling A More-than-human Istanbul
Supervisor: Özlem Özkal

September 2014 — September 2017

M.Sc., Industrial Design, Middle East Technical University [METU]

Thesis: Politics of the Knitting Pattern: Ethnography of Knitting Practice and a Women’s Knitting Community
Supervisor: Harun Kaygan

Graduated with High Honor and Course Performance Award

September 2010 — June 2014

B.ID., Industrial Design, Middle East Technical University [METU]
Graduation Project: Tofa
Industry Collaborator: Rapido
Graduated with Honor

March 2013 — July 2013

Exchange Student in Integrated Design, Hochschule für Künste Bremen [HfK]

My scholarly focus is on situated knowledges in and around design and care through feminist new materialist frameworks, and is ethnographically grounded. I published for diverse audiences in a wide range of formats spanning from peer-reviewed academic journals to artist books and science communication publications. I write in Turkish and in English.

THESES and BOOKS

Şahinol, Melike, Burak Taşdizen and Gülşah Başkavak. (2022). Hair:y_less Masculinities. A Cartography. https://doi.org/10.25360/01-2022-00000. 2022. ISBN: 978-625-00-9547-8. Accessible here.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2020). İnsandan Öte Bir İstanbul Düşlemek | Imagining A More-than-human Istanbul. Mekânda Adalet Derneği, Istanbul, Turkey. Accessible here.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2017). Politics of the Knitting Pattern: Ethnography of Knitting Practice and a Women’s Knitting Community. M.Sc. Thesis. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. Accessible here.

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Okay, Ayşe Melis, Burak Taşdizen, Charles John McKinnon Bell, Beyza Dilem Topdal and Melike Şahinol. (2022). “Cyborg Encounters: Three Art-Science Interactions”, NanoEthics 16, pp. 223 — 238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11569-022-00423-0.

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2021). “Medicalised Masculinities in Turkey and Iran: The Eigensinn of Hair in Hair Transplantation”, Somatechnics 11 (1), pp. 48 — 67. https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2021.0339.

Erözçelik, Alayça, and Burak Taşdizen. (2017). “Designing on the Spot: Learning from the Social Design Projects in Gökçeada/Imbros Island”, The Design Journal 20, no. sup1, pp. 1751 — 1764. https://doi.org/10.1080/14606925.2017.1352696.

Taşdizen, Burak, and Harun Kaygan. (2016). “Ahlak Dışı Nesneler: Ulus’ ta Kentsel Dönüşümün bir Psikocoğrafyası”, Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi/Journal of Ankara Studies 4(2), pp. 89 — 103. https://doi.org/10.5505/jas.2016.38257.

CHAPTERS in EDITED BOOKS

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2022). “İnsan Sonrası Erkek(lik): Saç Ekimi Örneği”, in Çokdisiplinli Çalışmalarda Posthümanizm, eds. Sümeyra Buran and Pelin Kümbet. Transnational Press London. Part of Paperback ISBN: 978-1-80135-122-5.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2020). “İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Kedileri, Geçici Birleştirmeler ve Tasarım Aktivizmi”, in Türkiye’de STS: Bilim ve Teknoloji Çalışmalarına Giriş, pp. 225 — 242, eds. Aydan Turanlı, Arsev Aydınoğlu and Melike Şahinol. Istanbul: İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi. Part of ISBN: 978-975-561-516-5. Accessible here.

OTHER JOURNAL ARTICLES

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “İnsandan Öte Bir İstanbul Düşlemek: Sakat Şehrin Kedi Evleri”, MADjournal 2, pp. 124 — 133. Part of ISSN: 2717-6762. Accessible here.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “#ÖneÇıkarılanProfil’ler, #SağlamTipler ve Diğerleri: Hornet’in Anlık Bir Fotoğrafı”, Beyond Istanbul, Mekânda Adalet ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet, eds. Zeynep Gülru Göker and Cenk Özbay, pp. 81 — 85. Part of ISSN: 2587-2508.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2020). “Knitting unruly kinships through design, a world-making assemblage”, EASST Review 39(2), pp. 53 — 56. Accessible here.

ESSAYS

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “Feral (Im)mobilities”, in Locomotion, ed. İpek Burçak. Berlin & Vienna: Well Gedacht Publishing.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “Three Material Tales of Babakale”, in Garp Sessions 2020: Fictional Protocols and Desirable Futures, eds. Giulia Civardi, Ekin Can Göksoy, Ezgi Hamzaçebi, Lara Ögel, Cem Örgen and Burak Taşdizen. Accessible here.

Taşdizen, Burak, and Övgü Ülgen. (2015). “Enter and Exit Ankara: The Five New Gates of the Turkish Capital”, Mashallah News. Accessible here.

OTHER

Rieck, Katja, Melike Şahinol and Burak Taşdizen. (2020). “Iterations of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Themes and Problem Spaces in Turkey, Iran and Germany”, Orient-Institut Istanbul Blog, 31 July 2020. Accessible here.

İleri, Eren, and Burak Taşdizen. (2022). “Masculinities and/as Design: Exploring the Space Suit Designs of Commercial Space Travel”, on 25 May 2022, in Masculinities in Design: Objects, Identities and Practices, 24 — 25 May 2022, online.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2022). “Assembling A More-than-human Istanbul: A Methodological Reflection”, on 28 March 2022, in The Urban Ecologies Workshop Series: Workshop One, Methodological Expositions, hosted by the Urban Ecologies Research Group at the University of Cambridge, online.

Şahinol, Melike, Burak Taşdizen and Gülşah Başkavak. (2021). “Cinsiyetlendirilmiş Hijyen: Erkeklerde Saç ve Kıl Bakım Pratikleri”, on 23 November 2021, in STS: Bir Disiplin Olarak Kimlik İnşası organised by STS Turkey, 22 —24 November 2021, online.

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2021). “Entangled Empowerment: Connecting Shared Hair Transplantation Practices for Men in Turkey and Iran”, on 16 September 2021, in Connecting Themes: Contested Knowledge in a Connected World organised by Max Weber Foundation, in Berlin, Germany.

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2021). “Colonizing Men’s Bodies: Natureculture Metaphors Around Hair Transplantation”, on 8 August 2021, in The Re-invention of Traditions in the Middle East, organised by I U A E S International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences Commission on the Middle East Annual Conference in cooperation with Orient-Institut Istanbul, online.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “Tasarım-Bakım Dolanıklıkları: Alanyazının Konuştukları”, at Poedat Gelecek Çalışmaları, 28 August 2021.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “Tasarımı İnsan Olmayanlara Açmak: Sahanın Söyledikleri”, at Poedat Gelecek Çalışmaları, 28 August 2021.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2021). “Care as Design: Urban Cats and Affordance Assemblages of Istanbul”, at ITU Industrial Design, Contemporary Issues in Design by Çiğdem Kaya.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2020). “Dis/media Assemblages Surrounding the Care for Street Cats of Istanbul”, on 19 August 2020, in EASST + 4S Joint Conference: Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds, 18— 21 August 2020, online.

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2020). “Everyday Cyborgs: Men with Implanted / Transplanted Hair and its Eigensinn”, on 18 August 2020, with Melike Şahinol, in EASST + 4S Joint Conference: Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds, 18— 21 August 2020, online.

Şahinol, Melike, and Burak Taşdizen. (2020). “Cartography of Hair:y_less Masculinities: An Introduction”, at Orient-Institut Istanbul Research Colloquium.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2020). “Posthuman Feminist Theory: Body Modification and Empowerment”, on 21 January 2020, in Technology and the Body: Care, Empowerment and the Fluidity of Bodies, hosted by the Orient-Institut Istanbul, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2019). “İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Hayvanları, Geçici Birleştirmeler ve Tasarım Aktivizmi”, on 28 December 2019, in MAD Araştırma Çalıştayı, organised by Mekânda Adalet Derneği, in Istanbul, Turkey, 27-28 December 2019. Accessible here.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2019). “#SağlamTipler: An Exploration of Idealised Masculinity on Hornet”, on 12 September 2019, in 2nd International Men and Masculinities Symposium, organised by Iniative for Critical Studies of Masculinities coordination, supported by Özyeğin University, Raoul Wallenberg Institute und Research Worldwide Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, 12-14 September 2019.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2019). “#SağlamTipler: Hornet’te idealize edilen erkekliğin bir araştırması”, on 11 May 2019, in Türkiye’de Erkeklik Çalışmaları: Sorunlar ve İmkânlar, organised by Iniative for Critical Studies of Masculinities coordination, supported by Özyeğin University, Raoul Wallenberg Institute und Research Worldwide Istanbul, in Istanbul, Turkey, 10-11 May 2019.

Taşdizen, Burak, and Harun Kaygan. (2016). “Between open-source and commerce: micropolitics of authorship and originality in a knitting community”, on 10 May 2016, in 15th Annual STS Conference: Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies, organised by Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt | Vienna | Graz (STS), the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) und The Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS) coordination, Graz, Austria, 9–10 May 2016.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2017). “Politics of the Knitting Pattern: Ethnography of Knitting Practice and a Women’s Knitting Community”, at Istanbul Medipol University Industrial Design.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2016). Welcome speech for “Multidisciplinary Thinking: Empowering Women Through Design”, at SALT Galata, collaboration with KEDV & Livstycket as part of 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial.

Taşdizen, Burak. (2016). “Social Media in a Knitting Community in Ankara, Turkey”, on 9 April 2016, in Social Media in Turkey: Uses and impacts in Social and Political Life, organised by British Institute Ankara, in Ankara, Turkey.

Taşdizen, Burak, and Harun Kaygan. (2015). “Immoral objects: A psychogeography of gentrification in Ulus”, on 15 May 2015, in 4T: Design in Times of Turmoil, organised by 4T Design and Design History Society coordination, at Yaşar University, İzmir, Turkey, 14-15 May 2015.

March 2022
Reviewer and Member of Scientific Board at UTAK 2022 [ODTÜ Ulusal Tasarım Araştırmaları Konferansı 2022]
Blind Peer Review of 2 articles

Film Festival: Iran at the Crossways. Documentaries and Dialogues on a Society in Transition, co-organised with IRSSC project team, 21 January 2022, INSTITUT FRANÇAIS de Turquie à Istanbul-Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey.

Panel: Modified (Hu)Man: Gelenekler, Kırılganlıklar ve Olası Gelecekler, co-organised with Melike Şahinol, at the Film Forum Iran at the Crossways. Documentaries and Dialogues on a Society in Transition. 10 January 2022, INSTITUT FRANÇAIS de Turquie à Istanbul-Taksim, Istanbul, Turkey.

Panel: Perform_Factur_ing /Healthy/ Wo_Man: Iran, Turkey and Beyond, co-organised with Melike Şahinol and Gülşah Başkavak, at the internal IRSSC Closing Conference. 12-13 November 2021, Orient-Institut Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Online.

Film Festival: Iran at the Crossways. Documentaries and Dialogues on a Society in Transition, co-organised with IRSSC project team, 12-13 November 2021, Orient-Institut Istanbul, Hamburg, Germany. Online.

Academic Workshop: Medicalized Masculinities: Knowledge Exchange from Denmark to Turkey, co-organised with Melike Şahinol, 20 August 2020, Orient-Institut Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Online.

Academic Workshop: Iterations of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Themes and Problem Spaces in Turkey, Iran and Germany, assisting Katja Rieck, 25 June 2020, Orient-Institut Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Online.

Academic Workshop: Technology and the Body: Care, Empowerment, and the Fluidity of Bodies, co-organised with Melike Şahinol and Robert Langer, 21 January 2020. Orient-Institut Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey. Online.

Exhibition: Cyborg Encounters, co-organised with Ayşe Melis Okay, Beyza Dilem Topdal, Burak Kaynar, Umut Özöver, Öykü Sorgun, Pelin Günay and Melike Şahinol, 10-12 September 2019, Istanbul Technical University [ITU], Istanbul, Turkey.

Design Workshop: Beyond its Function II, co-organised with Pelin Günay, 4 July 2019, Özyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Design Workshop: Beyond its Function I, co-organised with Pelin Günay, 12 July 2017, Özyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Design Workshop: Very Skilled People. 14-15 March 2017, Özyegin University, Istanbul, Turkey.

Academic Workshop: World Design Talks: Traffic Congestion, co-organised with Alpay Er and World Design Organisation (former ICSID), 24 June 2016, hosted by Özyegin University at ATÖLYE, Istanbul, Turkey.

Design Workshop: Regeneration of Craft II, co-organised with Alayça Erözçelik, 12-19 June 2016, Gökçeada, Çanakkale, Turkey.

“Feline Entanglements – Commons, Compassion, and Care”, Interview with Milan Vukašinović of ANAMED. Accessible here.

“The Medicalization of Bodies Is a Gendered Practice”, Interview with Max Weber Stiftung as part of Knowledge Unbound. Accessible here.

I participated and continue to participate in various local and cross-cultural (non)academic gatherings exercising critical pedagogies to challenge designed frameworks of oppression in both urban and rural environments, and to critically scrutinise anthropological methodologies to understand and represent these phenomena. I took on various roles such as facilitator, researcher, and learner in these learning programmes.

The Urban Ecologies Workshop Series: Workshop One, Methodological Expositions. Hosted by the Urban Ecologies Research Group at the University of Cambridge. 28 March 2022, online.

Designs of the Oppressed. Organised by UTFPR, in partnership with the Design & Oppression Network and Andifes. 2021, online.

Social Media and/as Urban Research: A Workshop for Beginners. Organised by Andrea Ballatore, Scott Rodgers, and Sara Rodriguez. 2021, online.

Fictional Protocols and Desirable Futures, Garp Sessions 2020 Residency. Organised by Ayşe İdil İdil and Deniz Kırkalı of Garp Sessions and facilitated by Giulia Civardi and Ekin Can Göksoy. August 2020, Babakale, Çanakkale, Turkey.

MAD Araştırma Çalıştayı. Organised by Mekânda Adalet Derneği. 2019, Istanbul, Turkey.

A New Social Cartography: This is not an Atlas!. Organised by Mekânda Adalet Derneği and Kollektiv Orangotango. 2019, Istanbul, Turkey.

Off the Beaten Track. Anthropology Field School. Organised by Expeditions — Research in Applied Anthropology. July — August 2019, Gozo, Malta.

Urban Political Ecology on the Road. Organised by Mekânda Adalet Derneği. 2019, Istanbul, Turkey.

Türkiye’de Erkeklik Çalışmaları: Sorunlar ve İmkânlar. Organised by Eleştirel Erkeklik İncelemeleri İnisiyatifi. 2019, Özyeğin Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey.

Field Notebook as a Research Tool/Apparatus. July 2018, Gümüşlük Akademisi, Bodrum, Turkey.

Graduate Forum. Organised by Harun Kaygan at Middle East Technical University Department of Industrial Design. 2014—2017, Ankara, Turkey.

6-month ethnographic fieldwork in a women’s community of knitting practice. 2015—2016, Ankara, Turkey.

I am the recipient of Course Performance Award from METU, and of MAD Research Grant of Center for Spatial Justice.My research and research-related activities have been supported by Center for Spatial Justice, Expeditions—Research in Applied Anthropology, EASST — 4S Society for Social Studies of Science, Garp Sessions, Well Gedacht Publishing, Poedat and TÜBİTAK.

Selected Article for Publication. beyond.istanbul Mekânda Adalet ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet special issue guest edited by Zeynep Gülru Göker and Cenk Özbay. 2021.

Invited Researcher among 3 others by facilitators Giualia Civaldi and Ekin Can Göksoy for 2020 Edition of Garp Sessions titled “Fictional Protocols and Desirable Futures” in Babakale, Çanakkale, Turkey. 2020.

Participation Waiver Recipient for EASST/4S in Prague 2020 Conference jointly organised by European Association for the Study of Science and Technology [EASST] & Society for Social Studies of Science [4S]. 2020.

MAD Araştırma 2019 Grant Recipient. Project title: “İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Hayvanları, Geçici Birleştirmeler ve Tasarım Aktivizmi”. Mekânda Adalet Derneği. 2019.

Scholarship Recipient for the 2019 edition of Off the Beaten Track organised by Expeditions – Research in Applied Anthropology, Belgium in Gozo, Malta. 2019.

Recipient of Course Performance Award by Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü due to being chosen as the most successful M.Sc. student at METU Industrial Design. 2014-2015 Academic Year.