Ela Gezen

Ela Gezen’s research and teaching focus on 20th and 21st century German literature and culture, with emphases on literatures of migration, minority discourses, historical and theoretical accounts of transnationalism, and literary and cultural theory. Her first book Brecht, Turkish Theater, and Turkish-German Literature: Reception, Adaptation, and Innovation after 1960, examines the significance of Bertolt Brecht for Turkish and Turkish-German literature. She has co-edited two special issues, Colloquia Germanica (“Transnational Hi/Stories: Turkish-German Texts and Contexts”) and the Jahrbuch Türkisch-deutsche Studien (“Turkish-German Studies: Past, Present, and Future”), exploring new directions in Turkish-German Studies by expanding geographical, methodological, and temporal frameworks. A special issue on Aras Ören she edited was published with Monatshefte in 2020. She also co-edited Minorities and Minority Discourse in Germany since 1990 published in 2022 with Berghahn Books. In addition she has published articles on music and literature, focusing on the intersection between aesthetics and politics in both Turkish and German contexts. Currently, she is working on her second book, Cultures in Migration: Turkish Artistic Practices and Cultural-Political Interventions in West-Berlin. Situated at the interdisciplinary nexus of cultural studies, history, migration studies, and the study of cultural policy, it investigates cultural practices by Turkish artists, academics, and intellectuals during the late 1970s and early 1980s as an early manifestation of Turkish self-presentation in West Germany, and more specifically as a key part of the formation of a Turkish public sphere in West Berlin. Together with Dr. Ben Schoefield, she is the co-editor of the book series, Transnational Approaches to Culture, published with DeGruyter.

In 2021 she was the recipient of the AATG Outstanding German Educator award, given annually in recognition of “innovative teaching, extraordinary talent, and exceptional leadership in the German teaching profession.”

She was a 2022-2023 Berlin Prize fellow with the American Academy in Berlin and spent the spring 2023 semester in Berlin.