RESEARCH
I completed my undergraduate and graduate education at Middle East Technical University Department of Industrial Design. I wrote an ethnography of knitting practice over a women’s knitting community, focusing on the micro-economies surrounding the knitting pattern and skill. I worked as a Research Assistant at Özyeğin University Department of Industrial Design between 2016—2019 and taught undergraduate design studio. Between 2020—2022, I then worked as a project coordinator and a research fellow at the Orient-Institut Istanbul of Max Weber Foundation, a German humanities organization. I am the recipient of Course Performance Award from METU, and of MAD Research Grant of Center for Spatial Justice.
Since November 2022, I have been working
at Kadir Has University as Doctoral Researcher in the project “Online Crowdfunding in Arts, Culture, and Media Industries: A Toolkit for Producers”
[Türkiye'de Kültür, Sanat ve Medya Alanlarında Çevrimiçi Kitlesel Fonlama: Üreticiler için bir Alet Çantası]
funded by TÜBİTAK [The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey].
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. 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. I write in Turkish and in English.
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. 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. I write in Turkish and in English.
MAD Araştırma Çalıştayı. Center for Spatial Justice [Mekânda Adalet Derneği]. 2019. Screenshot taken from https://youtu.be/Hn7UiQABURg.
texts
theses & books
“Politics of the Knitting Pattern: Ethnography of Knitting Practice and a Women’s Knitting Community” supervised by Harun Kaygan. MSc thesis. 2017.
“İnsandan Öte Bir İstanbul Düşlemek | Imagining A More-than-human Istanbul”. For Center for Spatial Justice. 2020.
“Hair:y_less Masculinities. A Cartography” with Melike Şahinol and Gülşah Başkavak. https://doi.org/10.25360/01-2022-00000. 2022.
articles in journals and books
* peer-reviewed“Cyborg Encounters: Three Art-Science Interactions”, with Ayşe Melis Okay, Charles John McKinnon Bell, Beyza Dilem Topdal and Melike Şahinol, in NanoEthics 16, pp. 223 — 238. doi: 10.1007/s11569-022-00423-0. 2022.
* “İnsan Sonrası Erkek(lik): Saç Ekimi Örneği” with Melike Şahinol, in Çokdisiplinli Çalışmalarda Posthümanizm, eds. Sümeyra Buran and Pelin Kümbet. Transnational Press London. 2022.
“İnsandan Öte Bir İstanbul Düşlemek: Sakat Şehrin Kedi Evleri”, in MADjournal 2, pp. 124 — 133. 2021.
* “Medicalised Masculinities in Turkey and Iran: The Eigensinn of Hair in Hair Transplantation”, with Melike Şahinol in Somatechnics 11 (1), pp. 48 — 67. doi: 10.3366/soma.2021.0339. 2021.
“#ÖneÇıkarılanProfil’ler, #SağlamTipler ve Diğerleri: Hornet’in Anlık Bir Fotoğrafı”, in Beyond Istanbul, Mekânda Adalet ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet, pp. 81 — 85, eds. Zeynep Gülru Göker and Cenk Özbay. 2021.
“Knitting unruly kinships through design, a world-making assemblage” in EASST Review 39(2), pp. 53 — 56. 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. 2020.
* “Designing on the Spot: Learning from the Social Design Projects in Gökçeada/Imbros Island”, with Alayça Erözçelik, in The Design Journal 20, no. sup1, pp. 1751 — 1764. doi: 10.1080/14606925.2017.1352696. 2017.
* “Ahlak Dışı Nesneler: Ulus’ ta Kentsel Dönüşümün bir Psikocoğrafyası”, with Harun Kaygan, in Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi/Journal of Ankara Studies 4(2), pp. 89 — 103. doi: 10.5505/jas.2016.38257. 2016.
essays
“Feral (Im)mobilities”, in Locomotion, ed. İpek Burçak. Berlin & Vienna: Well Gedacht Publishing. 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. 2021.
“Enter and exit Ankara: The five new gates of the Turkish capital”, with Övgü Ülgen. Mashallah News, 2015.
fiction
“Ecomasculinist Pregnancy” with Charles John McKinnon Bell. 2019.workshop reports
“Iterations of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Themes and Problem Spaces in Turkey, Iran and Germany,” with Katja Rieck and Melike Şahinol, Orient-Institut Istanbul Blog, 31 July 2020.“Internal Workshop: Technology and the Body: Care, Empowerment and the Fluidity of Bodies,” Max Weber Foundation Knowledge Unbound Blog, 30 March 2020.
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project experience
doctoral researcher
in “Online Crowdfunding in Arts, Culture, and Media Industries: A Toolkit for Producers” (#122G078), funded as part of TÜBİTAK 3005 - Innovative Solutions Research Projects Support Program in Social Sciences and Humanities. --- Project Team: Assoc. Prof. Eser Selen, Kadir Has University (PI); Assoc. Prof. Suncem Koçer (Co-PI), Koç University (Researcher); Asst. Prof. İdil Akın, Kadir Has University (Researcher), Burak Taşdizen (Doctoral Researcher). --- Project Duration: November 2022 - November 2024.research fellow & project coordinator
in IRSSC at Orient-Institut Istanbul as part of “Knowledge Unbound: Internationalisation, Networking, Innovation in and by the Max Weber Stiftung”, funded by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (#01UG1903).
--- Project Team at OII: Dr. Katja Rieck (Project Lead), PD Dr. Judith I. Haug (co-PI), PD Dr. Robert Langer (co-PI), Dr. Melike Şahinol (co-PI), Burak Taşdizen, Dr. des. Kamyar Nematollahy, Shahrzad Irannejad, Dr. Esther Voswinckel.
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Project Duration: April 2019 – March 2022.grant recipient
for “İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Hayvanları, Geçici Birleştirmeler ve Tasarım Aktivizmi“. 1 of 12 recipients of MAD research grant in 2019 of c.$900. Tasks included: 1) Conducting fieldwork in various districts of Istanbul to document citizen-led design interventions for street animals, 2) Qualitative analysis of photographed documentation of citizen interventions on ATLAS.ti, 3) Participating at the feedback session for grant recipients at Center for Spatial Justice. Project deliverables included 1) a journal article, 2) a booklet, and 3) a public talk at Center for Spatial Justice. --- Project Duration: August 2019 – February 2020.---
talks
conference papers
“Masculinities and/as Design: Exploring the Space Suit Designs of Commercial Space Travel”, on 25 May 2022, with Eren İleri, in Masculinities in Design: Objects, Identities and Practices, 24
— 25 May 2022, online.
“Cinsiyetlendirilmiş Hijyen: Erkeklerde Saç ve Kıl Bakım Pratikleri”, on 23 November 2021, with Melike Şahinol and Gülşah Başkavak, in STS: Bir Disiplin Olarak Kimlik İnşası organized by STS Turkey, 22 —24 November 2021, online.
“Entangled Empowerment: Connecting Shared Hair Transplantation Practices for Men in Turkey and Iran”, on 16 September 2021, with Melike Şahinol, in Connecting Themes: Contested Knowledge in a Connected World organized by Max Weber Foundation, in Berlin, Germany.
“Colonizing Men’s Bodies: Natureculture Metaphors Around Hair Transplantation”, on 8 August 2021, with Melike Şahinol, in The Re-invention of Traditions in the Middle East, organized 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.
“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.
“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.
“#SağlamTipler: An Exploration of Idealised Masculinity on Hornet”, on 12 September 2019, in 2nd International Men and Masculinities Symposium, organized 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.
“Between open-source and commerce: micropolitics of authorship and originality in a knitting community”, on 10 May 2016, with Harun Kaygan, in 15th Annual STS Conference: Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies, organized 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, in Graz, Austria,
9–10 May 2016.
“Immoral objects: A psychogeography of gentrification in Ulus”, on 15 May 2015, with Harun Kaygan, in 4T: Design in Times of Turmoil, organized by 4T Design and Design History Society coordination, at Yaşar University, in İzmir, Turkey, 14-15 May 2015.
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“Connecting Themes: Contested Knowledge in a Connected World” Conference. Berlin, Germany. 2021. Photograph: Kamyar Nematollahy.
invited talks
“Tasarım-Bakım Dolanıklıkları: Alanyazının Konuştukları”, at Poedat Gelecek Çalışmaları, 28 August 2021.conference papers
“Masculinities and/as Design: Exploring the Space Suit Designs of Commercial Space Travel”, on 25 May 2022, with Eren İleri, in Masculinities in Design: Objects, Identities and Practices, 24 — 25 May 2022, online.
“Cinsiyetlendirilmiş Hijyen: Erkeklerde Saç ve Kıl Bakım Pratikleri”, on 23 November 2021, with Melike Şahinol and Gülşah Başkavak, in STS: Bir Disiplin Olarak Kimlik İnşası organized by STS Turkey, 22 —24 November 2021, online.
“Entangled Empowerment: Connecting Shared Hair Transplantation Practices for Men in Turkey and Iran”, on 16 September 2021, with Melike Şahinol, in Connecting Themes: Contested Knowledge in a Connected World organized by Max Weber Foundation, in Berlin, Germany.
“Colonizing Men’s Bodies: Natureculture Metaphors Around Hair Transplantation”, on 8 August 2021, with Melike Şahinol, in The Re-invention of Traditions in the Middle East, organized 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.
“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.
“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.
“#SağlamTipler: An Exploration of Idealised Masculinity on Hornet”, on 12 September 2019, in 2nd International Men and Masculinities Symposium, organized 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.
“Between open-source and commerce: micropolitics of authorship and originality in a knitting community”, on 10 May 2016, with Harun Kaygan, in 15th Annual STS Conference: Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies, organized 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, in Graz, Austria, 9–10 May 2016.
“Immoral objects: A psychogeography of gentrification in Ulus”, on 15 May 2015, with Harun Kaygan, in 4T: Design in Times of Turmoil, organized by 4T Design and Design History Society coordination, at Yaşar University, in İzmir, Turkey, 14-15 May 2015.
“Connecting Themes: Contested Knowledge in a Connected World” Conference. Berlin, Germany. 2021. Photograph: Kamyar Nematollahy.
“Tasarımı İnsan Olmayanlara Açmak: Sahanın Söyledikleri”, at Poedat Gelecek Çalışmaları, 28 August 2021.
“Care as Design: Urban Cats and Affordance Assemblages of Istanbul”, at ITU Industrial Design, Contemporary Issues in Design by Çiğdem Kaya, 2021.
“Cartography of Hair:y_less Masculinities: An Introduction”, with Melike Şahinol, at Orient-Institut Istanbul Research Colloquium, 2020.
“Politics of the Knitting Pattern: Ethnography of Knitting Practice and a Women’s Knitting Community”, at Istanbul Medipol University Industrial Design,2021.
Welcome speech for “Multidisciplinary Thinking: Empowering Women Through Design”, at SALT Galata, collaboration with KEDV & Livstycket as part of 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial, 2016.
workshop presentations
“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.“Posthuman Feminist Theory: Body Modification and Empowerment”, on 21 January 2020, in Technology and the Body: Care, Empowerment and the Fluidity of Bodies, organized by Orient-Institut Istanbul, in Istanbul, Turkey.
“İnsanın Dışında, Tasarımın Ötesinde: Sokak Hayvanları, Geçici Birleştirmeler ve Tasarım Aktivizmi”, on 28 December 2019, in MAD Araştırma Çalıştayı, organized by Mekanda Adalet Derneği / Center for Spatial Justice, in Istanbul, Turkey, 27-28 December 2019.
“#SağlamTipler: Hornet’te idealize edilen erkekliğin bir araştırması”, on 11 May 2019, in Türkiye’de Erkeklik Çalışmaları: Sorunlar ve İmkanlar, organized 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.
“Social Media in a Knitting Community in Ankara, Turkey”, on 9 April 2016, inSocial Media in Turkey: Uses and impacts in Social and Political Life, organized by British Institute Ankara, in Ankara, Turkey.
interviews
“Feline Entanglements – Commons, Compassion, and Care”, Interview with Milan Vukašinović of ANAMED.“The Medicalization of Bodies Is a Gendered Practice”, Interview with Max Weber Stiftung as part of Knowledge Unbound.