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Research

A dizi-ying past: Ottoman costume dramas and the consumption of history in Turkey and beyond

This individual research project comprising several journal articles and a monograph investigates ways in which the national past is mediated through popular culture to serve political demands of the present in Turkey and beyond. Set against the global rise of the Turkish “dizi” (TV serial), it examines varied articulations of national identity in Ottoman costume dramas such as Magnificent Century (Muhtesem Yüzyıl, 2011-2014) and Resurrection Ertugrul (Dirilis Ertugrul, 2014-2019), which, though apparently similar in their glorification of the Ottoman past and in their global success, were diametrically opposed ideological projects within the authoritarian political milieu of Turkey. Tracing the rise of neo-Ottoman nostalgia through to Otto-exhaustion (or Otto-fatigue), the apparent waning of such affect, the work explores mediated nostalgia, gender and representation, necropolitics, and the “post-truth” phenomenon amidst discussion of the above texts as well as Foundation Osman (Kuruluş Osman, 2019-2025), Fatih: Sultan of Conquests (Mehmed: Fetihler Sultanı (2024-present), and a series of propaganda videos released by the Turkish Directorate of Communication. 

Post-truth and popular culture

The emergence of the so-called post-truth era coincides with a rise in populism, nationalism, conspiracy theory, and, in some cases, authoritarianism across Europe and beyond. This phenomenon is often conceived as a function of media, and much work has rightly explored the roles of social media and highly partisan news in fomenting this shift, focusing on issues such as facticity, self-selection of channels (e.g. filter bubbles), style, and the displacement of “objective facts” by emotion. However, while such work may dip into the mutually imbricated realm of popular culture, the role of entertainment media such as scripted television, cinema, reality TV, satirical news and talk shows, sketch and stand-up comedy, tabloids, mediated sports, gaming, and popular music has received relatively short shrift. While such media make different kinds of truth claims than partisan news and the info-bites that often circulate on social media, they are nonetheless active in establishing norms that channel our sense of reality. Indeed, when compared to purportedly “factual” media, they may at times be all the more effective for the subtlety with which they do so. This project offers an alternative framework for exploring the relationship between politically-inflected popular media and the post-truth phenomenon. Early stages of this research include journal articles on Turkish TV dramas (dizis) such as Valley of the Wolves (Kurtlar Vadisi, 2003-2017), Metamorfoz: Kırılma (“Metamorphosis: Rupture,” 2023), and the UK Netflix drama Adolescence (2025). While the current focus is on Turkish- and English-language media, future comparative work may explore other mediapscapes. This project has individual, group, and network components, so feel free to contact us regarding collaboration. 

Public screens, screened publics, and screenfare: the role of media screens in the Turkey’s authoritarian shift

This ongoing project examines the varied interactions between media screens and publics in the public and political culture of Turkey in the 21st century. Adopting and adapting Kevin DeLuca and Jennifer Peeples’ watershed concept of the “public screen” (2002) for the age of new media, it takes a particular interest in the role of infrastructural media screens, including both digital technoscreens and analog billboards. Placing this alongside the role of pocket screens (cell phones) and social media, it explores the shifting nature of the public sphere in Turkey amidst the rise of the populist and, later, authoritarian, Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, 2002-present).  

Censor-seep: film festivals as crucible for censorship in “New Turkey”

This ethnographic project is based on work at film festivals in Turkey during the crucial period of 2014-2016, as new strictures were leveled against many forms of expression in the country. It examines the organizing strategies of anti-censorship activists on the one hand, and the trajectories of particular films on the other to evaluate the successes and shortcomings of those campaigning for the right to expression under an authoritarian regime.

Narratives of Justice in Kurdish Documentary Films

During conflict and post-conflict contexts, creating different platforms where (past) atrocities can be voiced, documented and archived proves to be politically and socially important. Those platforms provide crucial means for narrating the future aspirations of the affected communities and their own sense of justice. Documentary cinema offers such a platform where the narratives of justice and peace are documented and sometimes also mobilized. This PhD research by Nilgün Yelpaze examines narratives of justice in Kurdish documentary cinema and their intervention in transitional processes in order to have a deeper understanding of imaginations of social justice within Kurdish society, with a primary (but not exclusive) focus on North Kurdistan/Turkey. The study presents an interdisciplinary theoretical approach on Transitional Justice and documentary film studies, situating documentary form as an analytical unit on the nexus of time and space of justice. Kurdish documentary films are analyzed through this lens in order to have a deeper understanding of various vernacular imaginations of justice within Kurdish society. Arts in general, and documentary films in particular can provide a space of mobilization during the bottom-up transitional justice and peace processes. Kurdish documentary cinema becomes not  only an actor in seeking for justice but also a site of resistance to state induced history.