Nilgün Yelpaze

Transitional Justice, Narratives of Justice

Documentary Cinema, Kurdish Film Studies

Kurdish Studies, Kurdish Conflict, Turkey

Nilgün Yelpaze studied Political Science and International Relations at Bogazici University, Istanbul from 2007 to 2012. She received her MA degree from the Free University of Berlin, Sociology- European Studies in 2020. She has been a PhD researcher at the Center for Conflict Studies since October 2020 with a scholarship from the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. Her research focuses on the narratives of justice in Kurdish documentary films and approaches arts and cinema as potential actors during bottom-up transitional justice processes. Nilgün Yelpaze is involved in feminist filmmaking and video activism herself and has one feature documentary film on the protests against the abortion ban in Poland.

(February 2023) Kurdish Documentary Cinema in Turkey as an Actor Demanding Justice, at Turkey at 100: (dis)continuities and (dis)contents, Orient Institute, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal.

(January 2023) Narratives of Justice in Kurdish Documentary Cinema From Turkey, held at Center Colloquium, Center for Conflict Studies, Philipps University of Marburg.

(March 2021) Representation of ‘Kurdish Female Fighters’ in Western Cinema. Presentation held at “Radicalization and Collective Violence” Conference. Junge Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Friedens-und Konfliktforschung (AFK) in cooperation with Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg. 

Book Chapters:

Yelpaze, N. (2023) “Representation of Kurdish Female Combatants in Western Cinema. A Frame Analysis of Fiction Films on Female Combatants” in Radicalization and Variations of Violence: New Theoretical Approaches and Original Case Studies (eds.) Beck, D. & Renner- Mugono, J. Springer International Publishing.

Yelpaze, N. (Forthcoming - Submitted) “Kurdish Documentary Cinema in Turkey as an Actor Demanding Justice” in the Edited Volume of the Conference: Turkey at 100: (dis)continuities and (dis)contents. (eds.) Kumru Toktamış & Isabel David.

Journal Articles:

Yelpaze, N. (Forthcoming – Submitted) “Visual Representations in Kurdish Media and Film: Contextual Framework and Aesthetical Strategies in Visual Media Production” in Globalizations – Kurdish Studies Special Issue (ed.) Andrej Grubačić.