About Me

Research Vision

I am interested in why (music) theatre and performance matter to us: What does it do to us, or make us do, culturally, politically, socially? Our senses, meanings and responses to performance are highly contingent on social and historical processes, and so are our sense of self, the identities we perform. We are living in rapidly changing times. We are challenged by globalisation, migration, cosmopolitanism, neoliberalism, austerity, injustice, illiberal democracies. In response to these challenges, theatre is in constant flux, and so are we. Therefore, my research interests lie particularly in interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary performance practices and their relationship with the wider socio-cultural and political contexts in which they operate.

My work splits into two main research directions:

1. I engage critically with European theatre and performance traditions that experiment with sound, voice and music, often in interactive and intermedial ways, to discuss developments in spectatorship and aurality (auditory culture and aural literacies). This strand of research includes Aesthetic Theory, (Post-Classical) Narratology, Music Sociology, Opera Studies, Sound Studies (soundscape analysis, psycho-acoustics), and Voice Studies.
2. I focus on contemporary political and social issues in the theatre, mainly between Turkey and Europe, which include debates on intercultural community, diaspora, (post)migration, social movements, the Kurdish question, and performative protest. For this, I work with theoretical perspectives and concepts from Postcolonialism (decolonisation), Political Sociology, Critical Race Studies (‘Critical Whiteness’), Social Movement Theory, Feminism and Cultural/Historical Materialism.

For both strands, I regard ethical, pedagogical and policy-related aspects as highly important. They help me to place theatre and performance within the wider contexts of cultural practices and political cultures.

My publications include numerous works on sound, voice and aurality in Journal of Sonic Studies (2017), Theatre & Performance Design (2015), Disembodied Voice (Alexander Verlag Berlin 2015), The Legacy of Opera (Brill 2013), Theatre Noise (CSP 2011), Performance Research (2010), among others. My latest texts on protests and Turkey were published by Red Thread (forthcoming), ITI Journal (2023), Performance Research (2023), EJTP (2022), Documenta (2021), TRI (2019), Performance Matters (2019), PRAKSIS (2016),  the Jahrbuch Türkisch-Deutsche Studien (V&R Unipress 2014), IPC-Mercator (2013). I am also a co-editor of books: Theatre, Performance and Commemoration: Staging Crisis, Memory and Nationhood (Bloomsbury/Methuen Drama 2023), Cathy Berberian: Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality (Routledge 2014), and Inside Knowledge: (Un)doing Ways of Knowing in the Humanities (CSP 2009).