Gulşin Çiftçi, M.A.

Englisches Seminar
Research Associate
Chair of American Studies
Room ES 318
Johannisstr. 12-20 | 48143 Münster
gulsin.ciftci@uni-muenster.de
Consultation hours: Thursdays 10-11 am. Please email me in advance if you plan to come for an in-person office hour.
© Ciftci

Gulşin Çiftçi teaches American Studies at the University of Münster. She is primarily interested in the body—affective, entangled, phenomenal, and vulnerable—and how literary critique, aesthetics, and philosophy treat the body in various literary and cultural texts, ranging from fiction to TV series and the arts. In her readings and academic research, she is most interested in the reasons that draw the reader/viewer to and away from specific cultural and literary texts, as well as motivations behind our literary and artistic engagements and their relational formations.

Her current project is tentatively titled “Piecing Together the Fragmented: Towards a Poetics of Literary Sexual Trauma.” She holds an M.A. from the University of Göttingen, where she has previously taught literary and cultural studies. By bringing together media theory, sociological theories of culture, and theories of the public sphere in her M.A. thesis, “The Unbearable Lightness of #instapoetry: Reading and Writing Poetry in the Twenty-First Century Social Media Environment,” she offered a study of #instapoetry as a self-marketing strategy and poetic form.

  • Information for Students

    If you are interested in writing your thesis with me, I am happy to offer you the necessary supervision. Before you reach out, please make sure that…

    1. Your thesis topic corresponds to my research interests, and
    2. You have a one-page exposè outlining your topic, research questions, preliminary thesis statement, and possibly a short list of literature you plan to work with.

    If you would like to have a letter of recommendation/reference letter, I would be happy to support you in your applications.

    However, please make note that, for this, you should have attended (at least) one of my classes and have participated actively enough for me to be able to assess “who you are.” Please reach out 4-6 weeks before you need to have the letter, and include your CV, your letter of motivation, and information on the agency you apply to (website links, call for applications, etc.).

  • Research Interests

    • Trauma and Memory Studies
    • Gender and Sexuality Studies
    • Affect and Public Feeling
    • Social Media Literacy
    • 21st-Century Novel
    • Contemporary American and British Poetry

  • CV

    Employment
    05/2021–present Research Fellow, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Englisches Seminar, Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl
    (Chair of American Studies)
    04/2018–03/2021 Adjunct Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte), Georg August Universität Göttingen, English Department & ZESS - Zentrale Einrichtung für Sprachen und Schlüsselqualifikationen
    04/2018–08/2020 Research and Teaching Assistant, Georg August Universität Göttingen, English Department, Prof. Dr. Barbara Schaff
    (Chair of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures)
    09/2018–05/2020 Research Assistant (Projektmitarbeiterin), Georg August Universität Göttingen, Centre for Gender Studies, The interdisciplinary research project “Verwandtschaft neu Denken” (Contested Kinship)
    09/2018–06/2019 Conference Coordinator, “Contested Kinship: Towards a Redefinition of Human Relations,” Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; Organizers: I. Kroppenberg, N. Linder and B. Schaff)

    Education

    2020–present
    since May 2021    		 American Studies, Georg-August Universität Göttingen and WWU Münster (PhD candidate); Dissertation: “Piecing Together the Fragmented: Towards a Poetics of Literary Sexual Trauma”
    2017–2020 American Studies/English Philology, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (M.A.)
    Thesis: “The Unbearable Lightness of #instapoetry: Reading and Writing Poetry in the Twenty-First Century Social Media Environment”
    2019/2020 Institute for World Literature, Harvard University
    2015–2016 English/American Studies, Osnabrück Universität (B.A.)
    2013–2017 English Language and Literature, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi, Turkey (B.A.)

  • Teaching

    • Übung: Übung Theory and Literature (Gruppe I) - Love and Other Affects [099048]
      [ | wöchentlich | Di. | ES 226 | Gulsin Ciftci]
    • Seminar: The New Poetics: Introduction to 21st-Century American Poetry [099044]
      [ | wöchentlich | Di. | ES 226 | Gulsin Ciftci]

    • Seminar: Affective Aesthetics in Poetry Across Time and Media [096760]
      [ - | | wöchentlich | Di. | ES 227 | Gulsin Ciftci]

    • Übung: Wounds and Words: Trauma in American Literature, Übung Theory and Literature (Gruppe II) [094990]
    • Übung: Gender, Sexuality, & Queer Desires in 21st C. American Lit. - Übung Theory and Literature (Gruppe VI) [095131]

  • Talks

    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘"“I'm here to learn how to not be raped:” Gender, Sexual Violence, and Trauma in I May Destroy You"’. Representations of Violence in Literature, Culture and Arts, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, Turkey, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘"Affective Turn in Sexual Trauma Narratives"’. Following the Affective Turn, Postgraduate Symposium, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘"“Vulnerable as a small pink mouse”: Trauma, Vulnerability, and Intimacies"’. Research Colloquium, University of Göttingen, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Towards a Poetics of Sexual Trauma Narratives’. Harvard Institute for World Literature, Harvard University, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Pop-Feminist Literature and Social Media Rhetorics in Instapoetics’. IMLR Graduate Forum, University of London, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Translocal Poetics of Identity in #instapoetry’. 51st Northeast Modern Language Association Convention (NeMLA), Boston, MA, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Cosmopolis: Exploring Global Hegemonic Masculinity in North-American Literature’. 2nd International Men and Masculinities Symposium, Istanbul, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Feminist Rhetoric and Poetry in the Digital Age’. Genderlabor Lecture Series, University of Göttingen, .
    • Ciftci, Gulsin. (): ‘Reading and Writing Poetry in the Digital Age’. Harvard Institute for World Literature, Harvard University, .