Ipek Sahinler [email protected]

EDUCATION

University of Texas at Austin, USA 2019-Present PhD Comparative Literature Minors: Middle Eastern Studies & Women’s and Gender Studies

University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom 2017 MSc Comparative Literature (Distinction, 3.70/ 4.00)

Sabancı University, -Turkey 2014 BA Social and Political Sciences (3.10/4.00)

Universiteit van Amsterdam 2013 Undergraduate Certificate in Humanities and Social Sciences (8.5/10)

Liceo Italiano, Istanbul-Turkey 2009

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Turkish literature; Latin American literature; Queer Theories; Middle & Near Eastern studies; the Latin-East; narratives about Istanbul; translation studies; teaching Turkish as a second language

LANGUAGES

Turkish, native proficiency English, near-native proficiency in reading, writing, speaking Spanish, advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking Italian, advanced proficiency in reading, writing, speaking French, proficiency in reading and writing Latin, proficiency in reading and writing Ottoman, proficiency in reading and writing

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Appointments at The University of Texas at Austin Assistant Instructor: Rhetoric of Wild Things (RHE309K) Fall 2021-Present Assistant Instructor: Rhetoric and Writing (RHE 306) Fall 2020 & Spring 2021 Teaching Assistant: British Literature in History (E316L) Fall 2019 Teaching Assistant: Masterworks of World Literature (E316N) Spring 2020

Appointments as Turkish Teacher Assistant Instructor of Turkish TUR130D, UT Austin, Center for European Studies Spring 2021-Present Turkish Language Partner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, TURFLI Program Summer 2021 Turkish Language Partner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, TURFLI Program Summer 2020 Full-time Turkish Tutor, Speak Turkish Edinburgh, Scotland, UK 2016-2017 Freelance Turkish Teacher (On-line & On-Site) 2016-Present

Professional Teaching Assistant in Literature 2017-2019 Worked at Sabancı University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences as teaching assistant for the course titled Major Works of Short Fiction (HUM241). Led weekly discussion sessions that consisted of fifty undergraduate students. Prepared lesson plans, course materials, held regular office hours, graded papers, proctored exams and collaborated with head professor for curriculum design.

English Teacher for Teens 2016 Worked as English teacher in Niños del Arco Iris, which is a Dutch-funded, Peruvian state-approved secondary vocational school located in Cusco, Peru. Taught English in A1, A2 and B1 levels to pupils whose ages range from seventeen to thirty. Prepared lesson plans, weekly student development reports

1 and organized extra-curricular activities.

English Teacher for Adults 2016 Worked as English teacher in El Arte Sano; a language school located in Cusco, Peru. Delivered evening classes to adults in B1 level. Organized conversation sessions to help students enhance their verbal skills.

Librarian and Literacy Teacher 2016 Acted as literacy ambassador via NGO called Biblioworks in Sucre, Bolivia. Worked in the local library of the village called Yamparaéz. Delivered basic English and intermediate Spanish language classes to local Quechua children. Organized daily workshops and recreational activities. Set a separate reading room for library with support of municipality and fundraisers and held daily read aloud sessions in Spanish with donated books.

PUBLICATIONS

Articles “Yoksul Queer Çalışmaları Nedir?” (What Is Poor Queer Studies?) Birikim Dergisi. Ağustos 2020, Print “Tante Rosa ve Düş(üş) Kavramı, ya da Tante Rosa’nın ‘Queer Düşüş Sanatı’.” (Tante Rosa and the Notion of Failure, or Tante Rosa’s “Queer Art of Failure”). KaosQ+, Vol8. 2020. Print “Ulusal Feminist Yazınları Ulusötesi Queer Yazınsallıklar Olarak Yeniden Okumak.” ((Re)reading National Feminist Narratives as Transnational Queer Textualities) KaosQ+, 2020.Print

Newspaper Articles “Queer Latin Amerika Sineması”. (Queer Latin American Cinema) Bianet. 5 Jul 2019. Web “Osmanlı’nın İstanbulu ve Juan Goytisolo’nun İstanbul’u”. (The Ottoman Istanbul and Juan Goytisolo’s Istanbul) K24. 25 April 2019. Web. “Cuarón’un Roma’sı ve Çeper Tarihlerin Döngüselliği” (Cuarón’s Roma and the Circularity of Peripheral Cultures) Bianet. 22 Dec 2018. Web. “Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar İtalyanca’da” (Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar is in Italian). Sabitfikir. 18 Feb 2015. Web. “Gezi’den Çıkan Kitaplar” (Books about the Gezi Protest). Bianet. 27 July 2013. Web “Gezi’den Çıkan Melodiler” (Melodies from the Gezi Protest). Bianet. 17 Aug 2013. Web

Book Reviews “Review of Matt Brim’s Poor Queer Studies: Confronting Elitism in the University” for Ethnic and Third World Review of Books, Vol.20, March 2020

Translations Audre Lorde, “Erotiğin İşlevleri: Bir Güç Olarak Erotik” (Uses of the Erotic: Erotic as Power) for SALT Museum Istanbul. 2021 March (Eng to Tur) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. İtalya Seyahati (The Italian Journey). Iletisim: 2014 (Latin to Tur, excerpts)

Edited Books Virginia Woolf. To the Light House (Deniz Feneri, Ayrıntı: 2016) (Eng to Tur) Samuel Beckett. Echo’s Bones (Echo’nun Kemikleri, Ayrıntı: 2016) (Eng to Tur) Baltasar Gracián. El Héroe (Kahramanların Cep Aynası, Maya: 2015) (Spa to Tur) Fernando Savater. Ética para Amador. (Oğluma Ahlâk Üstüne Öğütler. Iletisim: 2015) (Spa to Tur) Wilhelm Schmid. Unglücklich Sein. Eine Ermutigung (Mutsuz Olmak, Iletisim: 2014) (Eng to Tur) William Faulkner. As I Lay Dying (Döşeğimde Ölürken, Iletisim: 2013) (Eng to Tur)

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

 “Before” Homosexuality in Ottoman Literature, Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, October 2021  How is Queer Understood in Turkey?, Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, October 2020  How Can There Be a Future for Queer Studies?: On the Unsustainable Stability of Queer Studies, NeMLA 51st Annual Conference, , March 2020

2  The Turkish Boom in Latin America: Telenovelas, Modernity and Violence, 16th Annual Conference on Comparative Literature, UT Austin, Feb 2020  (Re)reading National Feminist Narratives as Transnational Queer Textualities, Turkologentag 2018 GTOT, University of Bamberg, Germany, Sep 2018  (Re)reading National Feminist Narratives as Transnational Queer Textualities, WOCMES ‘18, Universidad de Sevilla, , July 2018

INVITED TALKS

 Pandemi ve Queer Ufuklar, Boysan’ın Evi, Istanbul, Nov 2020  “Queer Türkçe Edebiyat”, Moda Sahnesi, Istanbul, Jan 2020  “Kadın Yazar, Kadın Yönetir: Türk Sinemasında Kadın Yazını ve Füruzan” Gender, Film and Literature Talks, Istanbul Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence, May 2019  “Dissident Characters in Turkish Literature”, Aesthetics of Trauma and Violence Workshop, Turcology Institute, Freie Universität Berlin  “Queer Teori(ler) ve Pratik(ler)”, Boysan’ın Evi, Istanbul, Dec 2018  “Düş(üş) Kavramı ve Tante Rosa” , Sevgi Soysal Symposium, Nilüfer Belediyesi, Bursa, Dec 2018  “Reading Jane Eyre in Turkey”, Gender, Film and Literature Talks, Istanbul Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence, Nov 2018  “Queer’i Düşünmek, Queer Düşünmek”, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Sabanci University, Oct 2018

PROJECTS & WORKSHOPS ORGANIZED

Organizer & Moderator: “Turkish Literature in Translation Reading Group” (Online) Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin -’s Snow with Maureen Freely – Sep 24, 2020 -Sevgi Soysal’s Noontime in Yenisehir with Amy Marie Spangler – Oct 22, 2020 -Kemal Varol’s Wûf with Dayla Rogers – Nov 19, 2020 -Bilge Karasu’s A Long Days Evening with Aron Aji – Feb 16, 2021 -Aslı Erdogan’s Stone Building and Other Places with Sevinc Turkkan – March 23, 2021 -Sema Kaygusuz’s Every Fire You Tend with Nicholas Glastonbury – April 22. 2021

Lecturer at Queer Teori ve Müphem Türkçe Edebiyat Seminars (Queer Theory and Mubham Turkish Literature) at Moda Sahnesi, Istanbul, June-July 2021

Lecturer at Queer Türkçe Edebiyat Seminars (Queer Turkish Literature) at Moda Sahnesi, Istanbul, June- July 2020

Lecturer at Summer Queer Theory Seminars at SPoD Istanbul (Social Policies, Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, July 2019

Lecturer at “Looking at Turkish Literature via Queer Theory” Seminars at SPoD Istanbul (Social Policies, Sexual Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association), Dec 2018-June 2019

Co-editor of SU Gender Mor Sertifika Edebiyat Dosyasi (Purple Certificate-Literature Dossier) in coll. with Sabanci University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence, Istanbul, Aug 2019

Co-organizer of “Istanbul from the eyes of Mediterranean Writers” Literary Talks Series at Istanbul Araştırmaları Enstitüsü, in coll. with Koç University and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, June 2018 -1st meeting: From to Istanbul: An Exiliado’s Impressions on Istanbul: Juan Goytisolo -2nd meeting: The Carnavalesque Istanbul Narratives of a Flaneur from Eyüp: Pierre Loti and Aziyade -3rd meeting: Istanbul in the Early-Modern Turkish Feminist Writing: Halide Edip’s Sinekli Bakkal

Founder of Istanbul Reading Club, 2017-2019 An Istanbul-based book club that met bi-monthly in different to discuss novels around different themes (i.e. “Imagining Istanbul as a Queer Space;” “Dissident Characters in Turkish Literature;” “Latin American Literature;” “Love in Turkish Literature;” “1001 Nights”). Each theme covered ten weeks and five books in total. IRC was a free, open-to-the-public book club that aimed to gather people who are interested in

3 literature together and create a platform to bridge world literature with Turkish literature (some writers we looked at: Pierre Loti, Virginia Woolf, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Orhan Pamuk, , Julio Cortázar, Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Márquez etc.

CERTIFICATES

Certificate of Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language 2017 (Yabancı Dil Olarak Türkçe Öğretimi Sertifikası) Istanbul Aydin University, Turkey

Certificate in English Teaching to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) 2016 University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Turkish Diction 2015 The Turkish Ministry of Education & Başkent İletişim Bilimleri Academy, Istanbul, Turkey

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Latin American Studies Association (LASA) North East Modern Language Association (NeMLA) American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages (AATT) The Society of Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (Gesellschaft für Turkologie, Osmanistik und Türkeiforschung, GTOT)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Fellow Sep 2020-Present Queer Art and Theory Colloquium, Institute for Queer Theory Berlin

Editor-in-Chief’s Assistant Summer 2013 Interned as editor-in-chief's assistant in Iletisim Yayinlari; a Turkey-based publishing house that published authors like Orhan Pamuk and Emine Sevgi Özdamar. Prepared book reviews, did literary research, translation, proofreading and transcription. Also participated in 33rd International Istanbul Book Fair.

Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), Turkey Summer 2012 Acted as a research intern in IPC, which is an independent policy research institute fostering academic research in social sciences and its application to policy making in Turkey. Provided additional research for ongoing policy drafts and projects about Turkey-EU relations and current trends of political and social change. Transcribed monthly “Cinema-Politics Meetings” held in IPC, assisted with organization of various workshops, created database of IPC’s Stiftung Mercator Fellows and edited daily press reader.

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS

University Graduate Professional Development Award, UT Austin Spring 2020 University Graduate Professional Development Award, UT Austin Fall 2019 Comparative Literature Graduate Excellence Recruitment Fellowship, UT Austin 2019-24 Listed in Dean’s High Honor List (3.95/4.00), Sabanci University, Turkey Spring 2014 Listed in Dean’s High Honor List (3.50/4.00), Sabanci University, Turkey Fall 2013 Listed in Dean’s High Honor List (3.90/4.00), Sabanci University, Turkey Spring 2013 Listed in Dean’s High Honor List (3.51/4.00), Sabanci University, Turkey Fall 2012 Monthly Merit Scholarship, Sabanci University, Turkey 2012-2014

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Volunteer book reader at Bogazici University's Technology and Education Laboratory 2017 GETEM is a public e-library for benefit of visually impaired citizens. Vocalized Terry

4 Eagleton’s The Meaning of Life (Hayatın Anlamı) and Sigmund Freud’s Trauer und Melancholie (Yas ve Melankoli)

Volunteer book reader at Istanbul University’s Barrier-Free Information Center 2014-2016 (Engelsiz Bilgi Merkezi) Awarded by Library and Documentation Department for supporting enhancement of world literature section of audio book archive for visually impaired students. Vocalized Samuel Beckett’s Proust, Elias Canetti’s Über Tiere (Hayvanlar Üzerine), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (Sırça Fanus), Tezer Özlü’s Eski Bahçe, ’s In Praise of Reading and Fiction (Edebiyata Övgü)

Volunteer social rehabilitator for juvenile delinquents in Maltepe Detention House 2009-2011 Organized weekly workshops in collaboration with two other undergraduate students on Turkish folk literature to enhance juvenile delinquents’ verbal and literary skills as part of Civic Involvement Projects (CIP). Applied poetry therapy to help facilitate teens’ adaptative skills for post-release.

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