Dr. Duygu Ergun

Research fellow, project Early Turkish-German Media Initiatives: An Archive of Joy, Artistic Production, and Everyday Life

CV

EDUCATION

  • 2023 Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of Michigan, USA.
    Graduate Certificate in German Studies, Graduate Certificate in Film, Television and Media Studies
    Dissertation Title: “The Making of an Aesthetic Domain: An Archive of Lived Relations in Postwar Turkish-German Media Initiatives”
  • Dissertation Committee: Frieda Ekotto (Co-chair), Kristin Dickinson (Co-chair), Johannes von Moltke, Andreas Gailus, Peggy McCracken.
  • 2016 M.A., Media Studies, Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, Leiden University, Netherlands.
    Thesis Title: “Plath, Bachmann, and the Autobiographical Prose of the Ordinary”
  • 2015 M.A., Turkish Language and Literature, Boğaziçi University, Turkey.
    Thesis Title: “The Eye of Singularity: Toward an Ethics of Encounter in Halid Ziya’s Novel Kırık Hayatlar”
  • 2012 B.A., Sociology, High Honors, Boğaziçi University, Turkey.
  • 2008 Abitur, German High School, Istanbul, Turkey.

UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND PROFESSIONAL WORK

  • 2022–2023 Freelancer at Academy of the Arts Literature Archive, Aras-Ören-Archive and Emine-Sevgi Özdamar-Archive, Berlin.
  • 2022 Intern, Academy of the Arts Literature Archive, Aras-Ören-Archive and Emine-Sevgi Özdamar-Archive, Berlin.
  • 2021 Intern, Mandel Center, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM).
  • 2020–2021 Comparative Literature Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Committee Graduate Student Ally.
  • 2020 Graduate Student Assistant, German Studies Association.
  • 2020 Graduate Student Research Assistant, Dr. Kristin Dickinson.
  • 2019 Conference Organizer, Cartographies of Silence: A Conference for Readers and Wrtiers. 23rd Annual Comparative Literature Intra-Student Faculty Forum, University of Michigan, March 15-16.
  • 2013 Research Assistant at the TUBITAK project “Underground Literature and its Influence on Youth in Turkey,” Koç University.

GRADUATE HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

  • 2022–2023 Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies Dissertation Fellowship, Freie Universität, Berlin
  • 2022–2023 Rackham Predoctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Rackham Graduate School (declined)
  • 2022 University of Michigan Comparative Literature Academic Term Internship Fellowship, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
  • 2021 Rackham Academic Internship Fellowship, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rackham Graduate School
  • 2021 Rackham Humanities Research Candidacy Award, University of Michigan
  • 2020–2021 Freie Universtität Direct Exchange Fellowship, German Studies, Freie Universität zu Berlin
  • 2020 Comparative Literature Study Abroad Fellowship, University of Michigan
  • 2019 Rackham Graduate Research Grant (Post-Candidacy), Rackham Graduate School
  • 2019 Honored Instructor Award, University of Michigan
  • 2018Summer Research and Internship Grant, Weiser Centre for European Studies
  • 2018–2021 Rackham International Research Award, Rackham Graduate School
  • 2018 Rackham Graduate Research Grant (Pre-Candidacy), Rackham Graduate School
  • 2017 Comparative Literature Summer Language/Research Grant, University of Michigan
  • 2016–2017 Comparative Literature Department Fellowship, University of Michigan
  • 2015–2016 Leiden Excellence Scholarship (LExS), Platinum Award, Universiteit Leiden
  • 2014–2015 Graduate Education Scholarship, Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Atatürk Supreme Council for Culture, Language and History, Turkish Language Association (TDK)
  • 2013 Research Assistant Scholarship, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)
  • 2012 Rectorate Award, Boğaziçi University
    Rectorate Award is given each year to only one student who has contributed most to the university community and the society with their extracurricular activities, and demonstrated outstanding academic performance
  • 2008–2012 Undergraduate Education Scholarship, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Science Fellowships and Grant Programs Department (BIDEB)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  • 2021 Engaged Pedagogy Initiative. Rackham Graduate School.
  • 2021 Participant in “Spatial Humanities: Exploring GIS in the Humanities.” Quick Shirk-Luckett, Teresa Lewitsky. University of Guelph, Canada, June 14-17.
  • 2021 Participant in Digital Humanities Summer Institute, “Infrastructure for Linked Open Data: An Introduction to LINCS,” University of Victoria, Canada, June 7-11 & 14-18.
  • 2021 Institute for Social Change. Keynote: Dean Spade. Rackham Graduate School, May 17-20, 24-28.
  • 2021 Berlin Program Summer Workshop. Alone Together, Free University in Berlin, Germany, June 30-July 2.
  • 2020-2021 Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Graduate Certificate, Rackham Professional Development.
  • 2018 Graduate Teacher’s Certificate, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.
  • 2017 Humboldt Universität in Berlin, Summer University Advanced German Language Course, “Deutsch Erleben,” June 19th-July 14th. (Level: C1)

LANGUAGES

  • Turkish (native)
  • English (fluent)
  • German (fluent)
  • Italian (proficient)
  • Dutch (intermediate)
  • Ottoman Turkish (advanced reading of printed material)

Research Interests

  • Turkish-German post-war migration
  • Literary theory
  • Everyday culture
  • Film, television, and media in West Germany
  • Media history after the 1960s
  • Theories of life
  • Intellectual history

Publications

Monographs

  • 2025-today Ergun, Duygu. Early Turkish German Media Initiatives: An Archive of Joy, Artistic Production, and Everyday Life. Edited by Yasco Horsman and Pepita Hesselberth. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2026. (in preparation)

Book chapters

  • 2024-today Ergun, Duygu. “Familiar Strangers: Young Writers of Anadil.” In Turkish German Literary Studies: Canonical (Re)Considerations and Archival (Re)Animations. Edited by Ela Gezen and Jon-Cho-Polizzi. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026. (forthcoming)

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

  • 2016 Ergun, Duygu. “‘Opens But Never Heals / The Rubyish Scar of the Past’: History of Writing on Witness in Nilgün Marmara’s Poetry,” “‘Açılır ve Kapanmaz / Tarihin Yakut Yarası’: Nilgün Marmara Şiirinde Tanıklığı Yazmanın Tarihi.” Monograf Journal 5 Jan. 2016: 106-123, ISSN: 2148-3442.
  • 2015 Mortenson, Erik, Duygu Ergun and Selen Erdoğan. “Underground Literature and its Influence on Youth in Turkey.” New Perspectives on Turkey 52 May 2015: 77-104, ISSN: 1305-3299.
  • 2015 Ergun, Duygu. “‘The Sentence Cannot Hold’: Language and Legality in Yusuf Atılgan’s Anayurt Oteli.” Athens Journal of Philology (AJP) 2/3 Sept. 2015: 185-200, ISSN: 2241-8385.

Fiction

  • 2010 Ergun, Duygu. Kuş Evi (Birdhouse). İstanbul: Hayal Publishing. Poetry.
  • 2008 Ergun, Duygu. Uzak Savaş (Distant War). İstanbul: Hayal Publishing. Poetry.
  • 2008 Ergun, Duygu. Barbara’nın Doğumu (The Birth of Barbara). İstanbul: Mitos-Boyut Publishing. Drama.
    • Turkish State Theatre, staged in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 Program.
    • Best Performance Award, 3rd International Theater Festival, Culture Center in Gostivar, November 3-8, North Macedonia.

Lectures

  • 2023 “Sender Freies Berlin’s Turkish Programming. A Journalism of Everyday Aesthetics.” Media, Germany, and the International Gaze. German Studies Association (GSA), October 5-8, Montréal, Canada.
  • 2021 “Formation of an Aesthetic Commitment after the Postwar Labor Migration: The Multilingual Publishing House.” Porous Borders: Mapping Multilingual Literature in Central and Eastern Europe, American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), April 8-11, Virtual.
  • 2021 “Broadcast Social Realism: The Stakes of Documenting Life in Aras Ören’s Was Will Niyazi in der Naunynstraße? as a Televised Essay-Film.” Expanding Concepts of Adaptation, from Silent Cinema to Cosplay. Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), March 17-21, Virtual.
  • 2020 “From Aesthetic Evaluation to Community: Sinematürk’s Transnational Screening Network.” Film, Performance, and Aesthetics, German Studies Association (GSA), October 1-4, Washington, D.C.
  • 2019 “Agreeable Labor: Politics of the Photographical Image in Yasemin Şamdereli’s Almanya: Welcome to Germany” Migrants and Refugees II, Middle East Studies Association (MESA), November 14-17, New Orleans.
  • 2018 “Uexküll, Technology, and the Impenetrable Life,” Modernism and Its Environments, American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), March 29-April 1, Los Angeles.
  • 2017 “Ethical Imperative of the Timeless: An Aesthetic Reading of Syncope in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Malina.” Eccentric Periodization, American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), July 6-9, Utrecht.

Courses

  • 2018-2019 Graduate Student Instructor, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Michigan. CL 122: Writing World Literatures, Section Title: “Aesthetic Configurations of Life”
  • 2017-2018 Graduate Student Instructor, Department of English, University of Michigan. English 125: Writing and Academic Inquiry, Section Title: “Writing, Politics, Form”