Dr Deniz Güneş Yardımcı

Deniz Güneş Yardımcı has completed her PhD at the Media Arts Department at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2017. She has been a recipient of the College Reid Scholarship from the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway.

Her dissertation entitled The Representation of Turkish Immigration to Germany in German, Turkish German and Turkish Cinema takes a comparative approach to the representation of Turkish migrants and the Turkish diaspora in these three cinemas. While there is already a considerable amount of scholarly literature on the representation of Turkish guest-workers and Turkish diaspora culture in German cinema, a critical analysis of Turkish migration in Turkish cinema is still outstanding. Her thesis seeks to address this gap by offering an important complementary vantage point that also includes Turkish cinema. By drawing on theories of cultural hybridity, she invokes a critical framework that has hitherto not been systematically applied to the corpus of films under investigation and that, therefore, has the capacity to yield original insights into the filmic construction of migrant and diasporic identities. In her thesis, she argues that German, Turkish German and Turkish cinemas exhibit three distinctive perspectives when depicting Turkish migrants and address issues of cultural hybridity in different ways.

This study combines a literature review and the exploration of relevant theoretical concepts with a contextual and close textual analysis of selected films. The dissertation’s comparative approach, which focuses on the cinema of the receiving country, the cinema of the sending country, and transnational Turkish German cinema, seeks to make an original contribution to the existing body of scholarship on filmic representations of Turkish migration into Germany in these (trans)national film cultures.

After her double degree study at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany, Deniz Güneş Yardımcı graduated from the Department of Sociology and the Department of Film/ Department of Mass Communication and received her German Diplom in Sociology in 2009 (equivalent to Master of Arts) and her German Magister (equivalent to Master of Arts) in Film Studies in 2010. During her studies, she worked as an editorial assistant in the news department of ZDF German Television and as a freelance journalist for Business Week.

EDUCATION

• 2001-2010: German Magister In Film Studies (with honours) (equivalent to heaving earned both BA and MA)

Film Studies (1st major) / Media and Mass Communication (2nd major), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

• 2001-2009 : German Diplom in Sociology (equivalent to heaving earned both BA and MA)

Sociology (major) / Political Science (minor) / European Migration (minor), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

• 2004: Erasmus Semester

Media and Mass Communication, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

• 2000-2001: German Magister (not graduated)

Sociology (major), Media Arts (minor), Political Science (minor), Philipps University Marburg; Germany

SCHOLARSHIPS/ RESEARCH FUNDINGS/ AWARDS

• 2017 Royal Holloway, University of London – Media Arts Department Grant

Conference Grant to present at the NECS – European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, Annual Conference, Paris, France, 29 June - 1 July 2017

• 2014 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) - Doctoral Research Scholarship

7 months scholarship at:
               Istanbul Bilgi University – European Institute
                         Supervisor: Prof. Ayhan Kaya
               Istanbul Bilgi University – Faculty of Communication, Department of Arts and Cultural Management
                         Supervisor: Prof. Asu Aksoy Robins
               Istanbul Bahceşehir University – Faculty of Communication, Department of Cinema and Television
                         Supervisor: Prof. Savaş Arslan

• 2013-2014 Royal Holloway, University of London - Crossland Scholarship for PHD Students

Maintenance Award and a Full College Research Fee Waiver for the 2013–2014 academic year.

• 2011-2013 Royal Holloway, University of London - Reid Scholarship for PHD Students

Maintenance Award and a Full College Research Fee Waiver for the 2011–2012 and 2012-2013 academic years.

• 2012 Royal Holloway, University of London – Media Arts Department Grant

Conference Grant to present at the Turkish Migration Conference entitled: Turkish Migration in Europe: Projecting the next 50 years, Regents University, UK

• 2012 Royal Holloway, University of London – Media Arts Department Grant

Conference Grant to present at the PG Conference: Subversion and Resistance in German Cinema, University of Leeds, UK

• 2012 University of Bremen, Germany – Conference Grant

Conference Grant to present at the BIGGS Conference: Integration 2.0, University of Bremen, Germany

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• Musical Moments in Turkish Emigration Cinema: Turkish Arabesk and Singer Film Genre and Its Impact on the Representation of the Migration Experience, Conference: 'When the Music Takes Over. Musical Numbers in Film and Television', Salzburg, Austria, 8-10 March 2018

• The Cinematic Representation of Cultural Identity: The Case of Turkish Migrants in Germany ,ESA – European Sociological Association, Annual Conference, Athens, Greece, 29 August - 1 September 2017

• ‘Good’ versus ‘Bad’: Constructing Binary Oppositions in Yesilcam Cinema about Turkish Migration to Germany ,TMC – The Migration Conference, Athens, Greece, 23-26 August 2017

• Turkish Migration on Screen: Three Cinemas - Three Different Perspectives, NECS – European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, Annual Conference, Paris, France, 29 June - 1 July 2017

• Cultural Hybrid Identities in Turkish-German Cinema,Turkish Migration in Europe: Projecting the next 50 years, Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies, London, UK, 7- 9 December 2012

• Cultural Negotiations in German Transnational Cinema,PG Conference: Subversion and Resistance in German Cinema, University of Leeds, UK, 16 March 2012

• Cultural Hybridity in the Films of Fatih Akin, BIGGS Conference: Integration 2.0, University of Bremen, Germany, 23 - 25 February 2012

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• 2013: English Language Tutor, Royal Holloway International - Royal Holloway, University of London

English for Academic Purposes; Pre-Sessional English Language Programme

• 2012 - 2013: Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Media Arts – Royal Holloway, University of London

Critical Theory and Textual Analysis (MA1052); Convenor Dr. Jacob Leigh

• 2003 - 2006: Graduate Assistant – Seminar Tutor, Department of Sociology – Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Germany

Introduction to Sociology and Academic Working Skills; Convenor Prof. Dr. André Kieserling

OTHER

• 2014: Conference Organising Committee Member: 'Turkish Migration Conference', Regents University London, UK, 30 May - 1 June 2014

• 2013: Research Assistant, Regent’s Centre for Transnational Studies, Regents University London, UK, June 2013 - September 2013

• 2012: Conference Co-convener: 'Welcoming Strangers', Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, 27 April 2012