PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Postdoctoral Fellow, Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Anthropology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, 2019 (expected)
Dissertation: Unsettled Geologies: The Temporal and Spatial Politics of Oil Exploration in Turkey, 1923-2023
Advisor: Gary Wilder
M.A. Sociocultural Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2011
B.A. Sociology, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
AWARDS, GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS
External
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2019 (declined)
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, 2016
Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 2016
National Science Foundation Travel Grant Award for the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science, 2015
Internal
Climate Action Fellow, Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2018
Dissertation Year Fellowship, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2018
Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Committee on Globalization and Social Change, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2017
Provost’s Pre-Dissertation Summer Research Award, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2015
Anthropology Department Summer Fellowship Award, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2015
Doctoral Student Research Grant, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2014
Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2012
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed, Under Review
“Geosocial Territories: The Political Geology of Caves in Turkey”submitted to Political Geography, September 2018.
Peer-Reviewed, In Preparation
“The Speculative Underground: Geological Uncertainty, Oil Conspiracies, and Temporal Politics in Turkey” to be submitted to Environment and Planning E, June 2019.
“Oceanic Potentialities: Resource Exploration, Materiality, and Geopolitics in the Sea,” to be submitted to Environment and Society, special issue on “Oceans,” July 2019.
Other
“Overcoming Lack: Discourses of Hostility over Arabs in Istanbul and Questions of Occidentalism and Subjectivity in Turkey” (unpublished master’s thesis), Columbia University, New York, 2011.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE AND ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Instructor
“Cultures in Transformation I” and “Cultures in Transformation II,” Brooklyn College, CUNY, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2016
Other
Climate Action Fellow, Center for the Humanities, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2018
Graduate Assistant, Committee of Globalization and Social Change, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2018-present
Teaching Fellow, Writing Across the Curriculum, Medgar Evers College, CUNY, 2017-2018
PANELS ORGANIZED
Geological Anthropology. American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, November 20-24, 2019
Techno-politics in the Middle East, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, November 14-17, 2019
The Future Strikes Back! American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting,
November 18-22, 2015
Science and Technology Studies and the Middle East. Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, November 11-14, 2015
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
“Decomposing Futures: Time, Work, and ‘Political Decay’ in Turkey’s Oilfields,” American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, November 14-18, 2018
“Matters of Conspiracy: Oil Prospects, Geological Knowledge, and Temporality in Turkey,” Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Commonwealth Annual Conference, September 18-21, 2018
“Violent Collisions: Geology, Oil, and Subterranean Power in Turkey’s Kurdistan,” Serbest Kurdish Studies Conference, Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University, June 1–2, 2018
“Geological Futures: Life of Oil in the Late Capitalist Colony,” American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, April 10-14, 2018
“Wells of Failure: Oil Exploration, Conspiracy Theory, and Power in Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, November 18-21, 2017
“The Will to Predict: Oil Exploration, Temporality, and the Work of Imagination,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), August 30-September 2, 2017
“Subterranean Futures: Geology, Materiality, and Temporality in Hydrocarbon Exploration in Turkey,” American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, March 29-April 2, 2016
“Anticipating Radiance: Imaginaries of Energy Abundance and Power in Turkey,” American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, November 18-22, 2015
“Unrealized Futures: Geo-Politics of Thorium’s Nuclear Potentiality,” Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Annual Meeting, November 11-14, 2015
“Inanimate Life: Rocks, Time, and Geological Practice at Turkey’s Mineral Research and Exploration Institute,” Science Studies Research Group (SSRG), Cornell University Department of Science and Technology Studies, November 2, 2015
“Earth Enacted: Rethinking Fossil Fuels and Climate Change through Geology in Turkey,” Four Field Event: Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: The Environment as Anthropological Subject, The Graduate Center, CUNY, October 9, 2015
“Common but Differentiated” Burdens: Questioning Environmental Justice and Historical Responsibility through the Politics of Climate Change in Turkey,” Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, March 24-28, 2015
“Hazardous Causes: The Politics of Responsibility and Environmental Health in Turkey,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, December 3-7, 2014
WORKSHOPS
Invited
The Life Worlds of Middle Eastern Oil, NYU Abu Dhabi, April 15-17, 2019
Writing Slow Disaster in the Anthropocene, Drexel University, April 19, 2018
Other
The Anthropocene Campus Philadelphia, Drexel University, October 22-26, 2017
The Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing, Junior-Senior Mentor Program, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, November 18-22, 2015
Anthropology and Environment Society (AES) Dissertation Workshop, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, December 3-7, 2014
EVENT ORGANIZATION
For Climate Action Lab
“Green Infrastructures,” thematic session, CUNY Graduate Center, Feb 22, 2019
“Housing & Social Hubs,” thematic session, CUNY Graduate Center, March 29, 2019
“Governance,” thematic session, CUNY Graduate Center, May 3, 2019
“Food,” thematic session, Climate Action Lab, CUNY Graduate Center, September 28, 2018
“Energy,” thematic session, Climate Action Lab, CUNY Graduate Center, October 26, 2018
“Waste,” thematic session, Climate Action Lab, CUNY Graduate Center, November 30, 2018
For the Committee of Globalization and Social Change
Translation Today: Politics, Ethics and Aesthetic, The Committee of Globalization and Social Change, April 4-5, 2019, CUNY Graduate Center
International Solidarity in History, Theory, and Practice, Roundtable Discussion, Feb. 14, 2019, CUNY Graduate Center
For the Love of Humanity: The World Tribunal on Iraq, Book Launch and Discussion, November 6, 2018, CUNY Graduate Center
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Anthropological Association (AAG)
American Association of Geographers (AAG)
Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA)
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
President, Middle Eastern Studies Organization, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2013–present
Student Representative, Anthropology Department Executive Committee, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2017-2018
Co-chair, Anthropology Department Elections Committee, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 2013–2014
LANGUAGES
Turkish (Native)
English (Fluent)
Kurdish – Kurmanji (Intermediate)
German (Basic)
RESEARCH / TEACHING INTERESTS
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
Introduction to Science and Technology Studies
Nature and Resource Politics
Multispecies Anthropology
Climate Change Politics
Anthropology of the Middle East
Violence and Warfare
Infrastructures
Space, Place, Territory
Power and Politics
Critical Social Theory
Time and Temporality
SOFTWARE SKILLS
Adobe Premier Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Ableton Live
WordPress
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Editorial Internship, CMJ Network, New York, NY, 2010-2011
Editor, BirGun Newspaper, Foreign News, Turkey, 2008
Internship, NTV News Channel, Foreign News, Turkey, 2007
EXTRACURRICULAR INTERESTS
Field Recording
Modular Synthesizers
Speculative / Science Fiction Writing
Gardening / Permaculture
REFERENCES
Gary Wilder, Professor of Anthropology, History, and French at CUNY Graduate Center
Julie Livingston, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU
Ashley Dawson, Professor of English at CUNY Graduate Center
Mandana E. Limbert, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Queens College, CUNY
Robyn d’Avignon, Assistant Professor of History at NYU
Katherine Verdery, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Melissa Checker, Hagedorn Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College and Associate Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Psychology at CUNY Graduate Center
