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Cuneyt Cakirlar

Cuneyt Cakirlar

Associate Professor

School of Arts & Humanities

Staff Group(s)
Department of Humanities

Role

Dr Cüneyt Çakırlar is Associate Professor in Film and Visual Culture. He teaches on a variety of modules in film and media studies.

  • The Bigger Picture: Core Concepts in Film and Television Studies
  • Analysing Media Texts
  • Researching Media and Communications
  • Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Cinemas I
  • Global Screen Cultures
  • Theorising Media and Culture
  • Theorising the Screen
  • Film Programming
  • Rubbish Film
  • Understanding Globalisation (MA Global Media)
  • Media Analysis (Global Media)

He is also contributing to the MA Global Media provision (NTU and ICUC – Beijing/China joint degrees).

Career overview

Dr Çakirlar joined the Media and Cultural Studies team NTU in 2012. He holds BS in Chemical Engineering (Bogaziçi University, Turkey), MA in Cultural Studies (Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey) and PhD in Gender Studies (University College London, UK).

Before his current position at NTU, Dr Çakirlar has taught at University College London (UK), Bogaziçi University (Turkey), Koç University (Turkey) and Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey). He has designed and convened modules on (i) Queer Aesthetics and Contemporary Film; (ii) Film, Ethics, Erotics; (iii) Film, Genre, Gender; (iv) Cinema and Nation, and (v) Research Methodologies in Gender Studies.

Research areas

Dr Çakirlar is member and co-director of the .

Areas of his research interests include:

  • Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Transnational/Postcolonial Sexuality Studies
  • Film Theory, Film Aesthetics, World Cinemas,  Genre Studies, Horror Studies
  • Visual Cultures, Contemporary Visual Arts, Curatorial Studies
  • Culture and Globalization

Dr Çakirlar is currently working on a series of collaborative projects that focus on issues of scale and regionality in LGBTQIA+ film, documentary and contemporary arts. These projects cover a wide selection of films, documentaries, and art practices, and focus on issues of cross-cultural translation in international industries/sectors of film and contemporary visual arts.

He published a co-edited book, (2012), which is the first extensive collection of studies on cultures of sexual dissidence in contemporary Turkey (in Turkish). He co-authored (with Serkan Delice (UAL) and Prof Wendy Shaw (Frei Uni, Berlin)) the exhibition catalogue of the artist Taner Ceylan,  published by Damiani Press and Paul Kasmin Gallery, and published as part of the Routledge book series Cinema and Youth Cultures (with Elif Akçalı and Özlem Güçlü). Çakırlar has authored essays for exhibition catalogues of various artists including Erinç Seymen (Zilberman Gallery), Jake & Dinos Chapman (ARTER), and Soufiane Ababri (The PILL). Çakırlar also co-translated Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter (1993) into Turkish (2014).

Çakırlar is the editor of published by Liverpool University Press - a major output of the  British Academy project .

Dr Çakirlar currently works on ‘representations of monogamy/promiscuity in LGBTQ film’, ‘Bersani-Dutoit collaboration’, 'youth/coming-of-age film', and 'queer art in contemporary Eurasia'. The special issue Çakirlar edited on the symposium he co-organised (Queer/ing Regions) is published in the journal 

Dr Çakirlar welcomes new research students in the following areas:

  • Gender and sexuality studies
  • Contemporary visual arts
  • Cultures of sexual dissidence, Queer Activism under New Autocracies
  • Global film cultures; world cinemas; documentary film/arts
  • Star/Celebrity studies

He has previously supervised theses in the following areas:

  • Digital queer cultures
  • Histories of representing same-sex intimacy in arts
  • Body/performance art
  • Cultures of hard-core pornography
  • Contemporary world cinemas

PhD Supervision (Current):

Bulut, Ece. Queering the Child in Indie Film. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [VC PhD Scholarship, supervised with Prof Martin O’Shaughnessy (NTU) and Dr Francesca Hardy (NTU)], 2020-present.

Bunkar, Neeraj. Caste and Rajasthan-based Cinema: Depiction of Dalitrealities in the Cinematic World,  supervised with Nicole Thiara (NTU) and Prof Nahem Yousaf (NTU)], 2020-present (submitted, awaiting examination).

Derouineau, Marion. Fashioning Digital Models: Posing and Contextualising the Body in Contemporary Niche Fashion Magazines. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [VC PhD Scholarship, supervised with Assoc. Prof. Marco Bohr (NTU)], 2021-present.

Smithdale, Kiana. This Pussy Bites Back: An Exploration of Female Fury in Screen Horror to Create New Feminist Live Art Practices. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [M4C PhD Scholarship, supervised with Alissa Clarke (DMU) and Ellen Wright Curtis (DMU)], 2024-present.

Smith, Courtney.  Representations of Drag, versus Modes of their LGBTQ+ Reception. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [UK Government Bursary, supervised with Francesca Hardy (NTU)], 2024-present.

Tahsili, Negar. Veiled Bodies, Naked Minds, Resistant Souls: Utilising Interdisciplinary Arts to Decolonise the Image of Iranian Women in Post-revolutionary Cinema [M4C PhD Scholarship, supervised with Alissa Clarke (DMU) and Harriet Curtis (DMU)],  2022-present.

Walton, Gabrielle. In and out of the Bisexual Closet. A material cultures study of plurisexual visual identities, supervised with Naomi Braithwaite (NTU), 2024-present.

Wileman, Jessica.  Migration Activism and Social Media Clusters in the UK:  Collective Identity in a Neoliberal Landscape, PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé, supervised with Dr Colin Alexander (NTU) and Dr Laura Coffey-Glover (NTU), 2021-present

Winter, Zeynep Serinkaya. Digital Intimate Publics, YeÅŸilçam Fandom, and Nostalgia for Old Turkey. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [M4C Scholarship, supervised with Assoc. Prof. Marco Bohr (NTU) and Dr Laura Coffey-Glover (NTU)], 2021-present.

PhD Supervision (Completed):

Brailsford, Kallina. Visual Literacy in a Culture of Immediate Photography: the Impact of Participatory Visual Methodologies on Engagement with NEETs. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [M4C Scholarship, supervised with Prof Duncan Higgins (NTU) and Dr Anthony Luvera (Coventry)], 2017-2025.

Busse, Emre. Ethnicity as Desire: Gay Pornographic Film between Europe and Southwest Asian/ North African (S.W.A.N.A.) Regions. PhD. Freie Universitaet [Hans Böckler Stiftung Scholarship, supervised with Professor Wendy M.K. Shaw (Freie Universitaet, Berlin)], 2019-2023, awarded Summa Cum Laude.

Ditch, Zack. Locating Regional Cultures of Drag in Medium-Sized English Cities: An Ethnographic Case Study of Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé’s Drag Scene. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [M3C Scholarship, supervised with Dr Stephanie Genz (NTU) and Dr Ellen Wright (DMU)], 2020-2024.

Jovcic-Sas, Alexander. PhD. Locating Grunow and Oram after celebrating the Bauhaus Centenary: Using parallel canonisation as a curatorial method to re-establish marginalised figures. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [M4C DTP CDA, supervised with Sam Thorne from Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Contemporary and Danica Maier (NTU)], 2018-2024. []

Moro, Sabrina. 2022. Ripped from the Headlines: Sexual Violence and Celebrity Culture in Contemporary US Media. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [VC PhD Scholarship, supervised with Dr Stephanie Genz (NTU) and Dr David Woods (NTU)]. []

Recio, Rocio Palomeque. 2022. Who’s your Daddy? Intimacy in a Neoliberal Era, and the Sugar Babe Phenomenon. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [VC PhD Scholarship, supervised with Dr Stephanie Genz (NTU) and Dr Stefanie Petschick (NTU)]. []

Salamah, Mai. 2017. The Intercultural Experiences of the Saudi Community in the UK: Gender Segregation and Media Islamophobia. PhD. Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé [supervised with Olga Bailey (NTU)].

Sarson, Charlie. 2020. Masc4Masc: Masculinity, Gay Men, and their use of Online Cruising. PhD. Birmingham City University [M3C Scholarship, supervised with Prof. John Mercer (BCU)].

Tiryakioglu, Nevsal. 2015. The Western image of Turks from the Middle Ages to the 21st century: the myth of 'terrible Turk' and 'lustful Turk'. PhD, Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé. []

Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil/PhD exist and further information may be obtained from the NTU Doctoral School.

External activity

Public Engagement: Events Organized

  • , symposium funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust, NTU, 18 May 2022.
  • Curator for (28 September – 27 October 2018), in collaboration with Queer Art Projects (London), Bonington Gallery (NTU), Collective Çukurcuma (Istanbul), Five Leaves Bookshop (Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé), Primary (Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé), Bromley House Library (Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé), UNESCO City of Literature. []
  • , Panel Discussion with Mine Kaplangı (Collective Çukurcuma, Istanbul), Işıl EÄŸrikavuk (UdK, Berlin), and Istanbul Queer Art Collective (London & Istanbul), Primary Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé, 29 June 2018. []
  • , an international LGBTQ film season curated for Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Broadway Cinema and Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Pride, July 2017.
  • Queer/ing Regions (a one-day symposium with talks by Dr Camila Bassi (Sheffield Hallam), Dr Jon Binnie (MMU), Dr Gavin Brown (Leicester), Dr Howard Chiang (Warwick), Professor Richard Phillips (Sheffield), Dr Silvia Posocco (Birkbeck), Professor William Spurlin (Brunel)), Centre for Inequality, Culture and Difference, Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé, 7 February 2013 (co-organizer: Dr. Hongwei Bao).
  • Research Seminars: Queer Transpositions (Alison Bancroft on Leigh Bowery, Gavin Butt on Oreet Ashery, Murat Aydemir on Francis Bacon), UCL Mellon Programme 2008-09: Translations/Transpositions, UCL, 26 Nov 2008 – 11 Feb 2009.
  • Performing Gender: Transpositions of Identity (a study of three films, Manijheh Hekmat's Three Women (2008), K. Kosoof's Corazones de Mujer (2007), Zemirah Moffat's Mirror Mirror (2006), including Q&A's with the directors), co-organizers: Dr Federica Mazzara and Dr Saeed Talajooy, UCL Mellon Programme 2008-09: Translations/Transpositions, UCL, 6 Mar – 20 Mar 2009.
  • Filming the Queer, Queering the Film (a series of 8 public screenings and discussion of films by Isaac Julien, Marlon Riggs, Derek Jarman, Tom Kalin, Todd Haynes, KutluÄŸ Ataman), UCL Mellon Programme 2008-09: Translations/Transpositions, UCL, 30 Sept – 5 Dec 2008.

Invited Lectures:

  • Unsettling the Patriot: Queer Art in the New Autocracy of Turkey, Invited Lecture, MA Queer Studies in Art and Culture, organised by Prof. Henry Rogers, Glasgow School of Arts, Glasgow, UK.
  • The 50,000 Nails of Istanbul Queer Art Collective: Translation and Cross-cultural Mobility of Queer Performance, Invited Talk, , organised by Nicola Kozicharow, CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 20-21 June 2019.
  • , Invited Talk, Atlantic Dialogues curated by Tom Trevor, University of Plymouth, 14 November 2017.
  • On Jake Yuzna's Open/ings, Closing Talk: Skeptical Thoughts on Love (exhibition), curated by Adnan Yildiz, Kuenstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany, 30 March 2014.
  • Queer Art of Failed Translation II: Aesthetics of Glocal, Invited Participant, Symposium: Queer Cinema and the Politics of the Global (AHRC Research Networking), organized by Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover, University of Sussex (contributors: Cüneyt Çakırlar (NTU), Rohit Dasgupta (UAL), Samar Habib (SOAS), Hoang Nguyen (Bryn Mawr), JD Rhodes (Sussex), Deborah Shaw (Portsmouth), Juan Suarez (Murcia), and B. Ruby Rich (UCSC)), 5-7 April 2013.
  • Art of Failed Translation: Ming Wong's Cinephilic Drag, Invited Participant, Symposium: Queer Cinema and the Politics of the Global, organized by Rosalind Galt and Karl Schoonover, University of Sussex (contributors: Cüneyt Çakirlar (UCL), Catherine Grant (Sussex), David Eng (UPenn), Gayatri Gopinath (NYU), Michael Lawrence (Sussex), Song Hwee Lim (Exeter), Shamira Meghani (Leeds) and Patricia White (Swathmore)), 12-13 May 2012.
  • Queer Art from Turkey: Aesthetics of the Glocal, Erotics of Translation, Invited Lecture, Authority and Subversion: Turkish Society in the Neoliberal Age, organized by Kerem Öktem, Lauren Mignon and Celia Kerslake, University of Oxford, 9 May 2012.
  • Queer's Honor, Queer's Death: Cross-cultural Criticism and Derek Jarman's Blue (1994), Invited Lecture/Conversation, organized by Leman Sevda and Berfu Åžeker, LambdaIstanbul, 4 April 2012.
  • Conscientiously Queer: Transregional Aesthetics of Sexual Dissidence, Cultural Studies Seminars, Invited Lecture, organized by Department of Cultural Studies, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey, 28 March 2012.

Sponsors and collaborators

  • , 1 September 2021 - 30 November 2023, funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust SRG.
  • [Bonington Vitrines, 28 September – 27 October 2018]– Funded by Arts Council England and NTU School of Arts and Humanities, in collaboration with Queer Art Projects and Collective Çukurcuma.
  • , Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Translations / Transpositions: Intergeneric Translations (2008 / 2009)
  • UCL Graduate School Research Scholarship, Full PhD Scholarship, Disidentification, Mimicry, Melancholia and Image: Queer Reconfigurations in Contemporary Visual Arts (2005 - 2008)

Publications

Books:

Queer Art in the New Autocracy:  LGBTQIA+  Cultural Practices in Turkey and its Diasporas (monograph under contract)

Liverpool: Liverpool University Press [edited volume]

(co-authored with AKÇALI, E. and GÜÇLÜ, Ö.) London: Routledge, 2023. ISBN 9780367543136

Çakirlar C, Delice S and Shaw W, 2013, New York, Damiani / Paul Kasmin Gallery, 

, edited with Serkan Delice, 2012 (2nd edition in 2021)  Istanbul: Metis. ISBN 9789753428699 (Intro )

Journal Articles:

, Frames Cinema Journal 21 (Special Issue: Alternative Film Canons: From B to Z), 2023, pp. 209-261.

The Garage Journal: Studies in Art, Museums and Culture 1(1), 2020, pp. 245-263. ()

New Review of Film and Television Studies 18(4), 2020, pp. 402-432.

Çakirlar C. CriticalArts 31(2), 2017, pp. 1-17.

Çakirlar C, [in] Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies 3(1), 2016.

Çakirlar C, Akçali E, Cineaction 97 (Special Issue: Contemporary Documentary), 2016, pp. 50-59.

Çakirlar C, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, (themed section Queer/ing Regions edited by Çakirlar C with contributions by Camila Bassi, Jon Binnie, Howard Chiang and Alvin Wong) published online in 2016

Çakirlar C, Screen, 2011, 52 (3), 358-75

Book Chapters:

In: C. CAKIRLAR, ed., Transnational horror: folklore, genre, and cultural politics. 2025, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 171-196. ISBN 9781802075878

In: A. INZERILLO, ed., Atlas of contemporary queer cinema: Europe 2000-2020 = Atlante del cinema queer contemporaneo Europa 2000-2020, 2023, Milan: Meltemi Editore, pp. 147-176. ISBN 9788855196789

Çakirlar C in (eds) Alyson Campbell and Stephen Farrier, Queer Dramaturgies: Å·ÃÀ¾ÞÈé Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer, Oxford, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 81-97, 

[Between the Local and the Global: Sexuality, Culture,  and Sociality in Turkey], co-authored with Serkan Delice,  In: C. ÇAKIRLAR and S. DELICE, eds., , 2012, Istanbul: Metis, pp. 11-34. ISBN 9789753428699

Exhibition Catalogues:

Çakirlar C. In: Erinç Seymen: Homo Fragilis [exhibition catalogue]. Istanbul & Berlin: Zilberman Gallery, 2017, pp. 34-55.

Çakirlar C. In: Jake & Dinos Chapman: In the Realm of the Senseless [exhibition catalogue]. Istanbul: ARTER, 2017, pp. 78-95.

Çakirlar C, Delice S and Shaw W, 2013, New York, Damiani / Paul Kasmin Gallery, 

Press expertise

Dr Çakirlar can offer comment on topics related to:

  • globalization
  • culture
  • sexuality
  • queer
  • gender
  • aesthetics
  • the Middle East
  • film
  • visual arts