Dr. Ekin ÖYKEN, Project Coordinator and Workshop Lecturer (Classical Philology, Literary Criticism)
Dr. Ekin Öyken, assistant professor at the Latin Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University, specializes in the history of ancient Roman religion, ancient musical thought, and Latin poetry. Having completed in 2010 his doctoral dissertation on the phenomenon of religious ecstasy within the context of the Roman cult of Bacchus, upon the invitation of Prof. Mark Griffith in 2013, he worked for one year as a visiting researcher at the Ancient Greek and Roman Studies Department of UC Berkeley, and studied there the concept of musical ethos in ancient Greek thought, especially ideas on the effects of music on soul and character. Getting prepared to publish a monograph containing his detailed study on musical ethos, which compares in this regard Ancient Greece and Rome with other classical cultures, Öyken has, as a guest editor of the IU Journal of Sociology in 2017, prepared an international special issue titled “Music and Society in Classical Cultures”, and given lectures on musical thought and philology at the universities of Humboldt, Bordeaux, Berkeley and University College London. The researcher also focuses on the translations of Latin classics in Turkish and their literary and cultural receptions. A study on Virgil translations in Turkey that he co-authored with Prof. Çiğdem Dürüşken was included in the Oxford University Press book Virgil and His Translators, published in 2018. He recently published an article titled “The Early Oblivion of the First Turkish Aeneid” in a special issue of the Classical Receptions Journal.
Levent BEŞKARDEŞ (France), Workshop Advisor and Lecturer (Poetry and Theatre)
Born as deaf in Eskişehir in 1949, Levent Beşkardeş, a silent actor, wrote, directed and played in 3 silent dramas with his silent theatre company in Istanbul between 1973 and 1981. After taking a mime-concert tour with Esin Afşar, in order to visit the city and broaden his artistic horizon, Beşkardeş went to Paris in 1981. He met the International Visual Theatre (IVT), theatre of the deaf and dumb and started to work therein and settled in Paris. Together with IVT, he took part in many theatres in Europe and Japan. As a deaf actor and member of “International Visual Theatre”, Levent Beşkardeş, aside from acting in theatre, received a “great many” awards for documentaries he directed. Levent Beşkardeş won the “Best Documentary Film” Award in Brussels International Independent Film Festival, successively in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005 since he reflected “the richness of the hearing impaired culture”. “7 Temel Günah” (7 Deadly Sins) directed by him, received the Grand Prix award in Amsterdam Hearing Impaired Cinema Festival in 2003, and was also chosen as the best short-length film and won the Golden Hands prize by the French Sign Language Academy in Paris, in 2004. Poetry also plays a great role in the artist’s life. Levent Beşkardeş is writing his poems by drawing movements on paper and exhibiting his poems in many cities of Europe. Since 2015, he has been taking part in poetry shows under the name of “Poems of Silence”, together with artist Aurore Corominas.
Assoc. Prof. Seda YAVUZ, Project Researcher and Workshop Lecturer (History of Art)
She completed her undergraduate study at Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Sculpture Department in 1999. In 2000, she started her graduate study at Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters, History of Art Department, she also started to work as research assistant at the same department. Theme of her Postgraduate Thesis was “Fluxus Movement Within the Context of Deconstruction”. Theme of her Doctorate Thesis was “Understanding of Gap in Sculpture: Modernism and Aftermath”. She got the title of Assistant Professor in 2013 and Associate Professor in 2017. Courses taught by her are, Sources of Western Art, History of Art of Sculpture, Philosophy of Art, Westernisation in Ottoman Painting, Contemporary Turkish Painting Art, Contemporary Art Studies (P.G.), History of Sculpture Studies (Doctorate) and Turkish Painting and Sculpture Arts (Doctorate). Her fields of study are modernism, feminist theories in arts, history of sculpture, modern and contemporary art. Her critiques and analysis papers are published in various different journals and newspapers, and she has served as curator and exhibition organiser. Since 2007, she has been giving seminars in various different art galleries and institutions. She is a member of the board of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA-TR).
Prof. Şükrü Haluk Akalın, Researcher on the History of Turkish Sign Language
He was born in Adana in 1956. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in 1979 at the Department of the Turkish Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University. He completed his postgraduate studies in the same department in 1987 and received his PhD degree in New Turkish Language. He worked as a lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor and professor on Turkish Language at Çukurova University. He was elected as a full member of the Science Council of the Turkish Language Association (TDK) in 1995, in 1998 he was elected for the Executive Council. He was assigned as the Head of the Turkish Language Association in 2001. He was chosen as an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan and of Genghis Aitmatov Academy of Kyrgyzstan. After performing his duty as the Head of Turkish Language Association for 11 years, he returned lecturing again in 2012 at The Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Faculty of Letters, Hacettepe University. He had been the Chair of the said Department between 2013-2016. He founded the Hacettepe University Research and Application Center of Lexicography in 2014 and served as the founding director of this center for 7 years. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Letters at Hacettepe University between 2016 – 2018. When the year of 2017 was announced as “The Year of the Turkish Language” by the Presidency of Turkish Republic, he was deemed worthy of the Award of Superior Service to the Turkish Language. In 2019, he founded the Department of the Studies and Applications of Turkish Sign Language at the Hacettepe University and served as the Chair of this department. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree by the Sumgayıt State University in Azerbaijan in 2019. He retired on February 16, 2022 by his own free will. He has 25 books and 122 papers published at national and international level. He organized the “Exhibition of Turkish Sign Language from Past to Present” in Istanbul, from 11th to 13th of May, 2022 where he exhibited all the documents, books and visual materials he had collected on the field for years. He is still carrying out his studies on Turkish Language and Turkish Sign Language.
Assoc. Prof. A. Zeynep ORAL, Project Researcher and Workshop Lecturer (Translation Studies, Deaf and Hearing-impaired Studies)
Head of the Division of French Translation and Interpreting, Department of Translation and Interpreting, at Hacettepe University, Assoc. Prof. A. Zeynep Oral was born in Ankara in 1965. After graduating from Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education, French Language and Teaching Department, Oral completed her master’s degree with her thesis titled “Contribution of Linguistics to Translation Studies” at the same department in 1993, and then, got her doctorate degree with her dissertation on “Narrative Semiotics” field. Conducting studies researching the Turkish Sign Language within the context of translation since 2011, Oral has become an associate professor on “Turkish Sign Language Translation” field, her area of specialization in Translation Studies, in 2017. She took part in social awareness projects in respect of disability rights. Together with her colleagues who specialized on barrier-free access, she was involved in joint works with public administrations and institutions such as “Improvement of Access of Deaf, Hearing- and Visually-Impaired to Audiovisual Media Services” organised by the Supreme Board of Radio and Television in 2019, and “Barrier-free Access and Communication Workshop” organised by the Republic of Turkey, Communication Department. In 2018, she took part in the writing of MYK Sign Language Translator National Standards and Competencies Level 6, which was published officially. Oral has at the same time been involved in the foundation of Hacettepe University Turkish Sign Language Studies and Applications, Non-thesis master’s degree Program in 2018, and is currently the Head of this program.
Prof. Okan KUBUŞ, Project Researcher and Workshop Trainer (Linguistics)
Okan Kubuş has been working as a professor at Magdeburg Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Department of Sign Language Translation since 2019. He is giving lectures on the field of sign language linguistics, deaf studies and sign language translation. In 2016, he got his doctoral degree with a dissertation titled “Participle Structures in Turkish Sign Language” at the German Sign Language Institute and Communication of Deaf Department at Hamburg University. He also translates between German Sign Language and Turkish Sign Language as a deaf translator.
Raziye KUBAT, Workshop Advisor and Lecturer (Visual Arts)
Raziye Kubat was born in Malatya. In 1989, she graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Painting. She organised a great many of solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. Included among her solo exhibitions of the recent years are: “Bana Masal Anlatma” (Galeri Apel, 2009, Istanbul), “İç Cephe” (Gallery Art Suites, 2012, Istanbul), “Çağrılmayan Yusuf” (Hayaka Artı, Istanbul, 2014), “Irgat” (Galeri Apel, 2017, Istanbul), “Gece Uçuşu” (Tütün Deposu, Tophane, 2021, Istanbul). Raziye Kubat has already participated in many group exhibitions at national and international levels, and included among her group exhibitions of the recent years are “Come’e Bella Stasera La Miagiungla di Vetro” – Giungla Fest, 2021, Lucca, Italy), Festival Della Letteratura Verde – Villa Dolfin Porcia, 2020, İtaly), Taswir Project – “5 O’Clock Tea” From The Consul’s Mnemosyne Series – Consulate General of Germany, 2020, Istanbul), “When The Globe is Home – Imago Mundi, Gallerie Delle Prigioni, 2020, Treviso, Italy). Raziye Kubat is currently continuing her works as an independent artist in Istanbul.
Neslihan KURT, Workshop Advisor and Lecturer (Sign Language Translation)
Born in Üsküdar, Istanbul, Neslihan Kurt is daughter of hearing-impaired parents raised as bilingual (CODA-Child of Deaf Adults). Having been trained in certification programs and seminars of Federation and various different associations on her mother tongue, sign language, Neslihan Kurt has received International Sign Language training from 2017 Hearing-Impaired Summer Olympiads General Coordinatorship and worked as translator in the same organisation. She gave seminars together with her team on Turkish Sign Language translation in various different activities organised in Sakarya University, Tosya Vocational School of Higher Education, Maltepe University and Istanbul University, as well as in Koç University Language Acquisition Conference. She worked as Turkish Sign Language Trainer in SODES project in 2010, and as Turkish Sign Language Master Teacher in Edirne Public Training Centre, and as trainer in Turkish Sign Language Training program of Kadir Has University Lifelong Training Centre in 2012, and recently worked as an advisor in a TÜBİTAK-approved project in Istanbul Technical University, and in El Feneri project broadcasted on TRT ÇOCUK TV. Continuing to translate many TV serials broadcasted on Barrier-free TRT into sign language, Kurt served as presenter of Sessizce program on TRT2 in 2021. Aside from working as translator in congresses, conferences, workshops, panels, notaries and public courts, Kurt worked as simultaneous translator for years in the TV program of Okan Bayülgen making great contributions to the Hearing-impaired Community in Turkey. Neslihan Kurt is at present continuing to work as sign language translator in FOX TV Prime News. She is at the same time a member of the board of Turkish National Confederation of Deaf, and Association of Sign Language and Translators
Denizhan KURT, Sign Language Translator
Denizhan Kurt, a translator of Turkish Sign Language, is a CODA (Children of Deaf Adults) and uses Turkish Sign Language as his mother tongue. He is a graduate from the Department of Social Services at Atatürk University. He worked as a translator at the Turkish National Federation of Deaf between 1996 and 1998 and also at the Turkish Association of Deaf, between 1998 and 2001. He also worked as a translator and assistant director at the National Theater Group of Deaf in Turkey from 2001 to 2006. He had been the translator of the olympiads of Deaflympics which was held in Samsun in 2017. His greatest hobby is theatre and he performed with disadvantaged children. In 2007 he was assigned as the sign language translator in Edirne at the Social Services, General Directorate of Children Protection Institution. He still works as a translator at the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services.
Ramin MATİN, Director of Documentaries
Born in 1977, Ramin Matin graduated from Loyola Marymount University, Cinema Department, and had his master’s degree at Bilgi University, Cinema Department. Being one of the founding partners of Giyotin Film in 2005, Ramin’s first feature film Canavarlar Sofrası (2011) was awarded various prizes in the Golden Orange Film Festival, Montpellier Cinemed Film Festival and Ankara Film Festival. His second film Kusursuzlar (2013) was awarded the Best Picture and the Best Director prizes in the Golden Orange Film Festival. After its world premiere in the prestigious Busan Film Festival abroad, this movie was featured in many festivals. Being one of the five directors of the Human Rights Picture Kıyıdakiler (2016) produced with the support of EU, Ramin Matin at the same time directed short documentaries for Discovery Europe channel. For Ramin Matin’s last feature film Son Çıkış (2018), the world premiere was held in Tokyo International Film Festival. Included among various projects he is working on, is also a project titled “Buhar” written together with author Hakan Bıçakçı and currently at development stage.
Oğuz KAYNAK, Producer of Documentaries
After graduating from Istanbul University Radio TV and Cinema Department, Oğuz Kaynak had his master’s degree at Bilgi University’s Cinema Television Department with a thesis on the use of sound in cinema. After his graduation he worked in sound designing, montaging and recording processes in many national and international projects. After working as a program producer in TRT İstanbul Radio / Radio 3 for more than 10 years, Oğuz Kaynak is continuing his works as producer and sound designer in Giyotin Film, co-founded by him, since 2005. Out of various projects he is involved in as producer and sound designer, Canavarlar Sofrası (2011) won special jury award in Golden Orange Film Festival, and Kusursuzlar (2013) won the best picture and the best director prizes, and his last film Son Çıkış (2017) was included in Tokyo Film Festival Main Contest Program. In 2019, Oğuz Kaynak was elected to a 6-weeks’ residency program organised in Los Angeles by Film Independent with the film “Buhar”, produced by him. At the same time, he directed a documentary about a musician “Ricardo” (2016) with the Ministry of Culture’s support for documentary production. He is currently working as post production supervisor in Turkish original contents of Netflix.
Sibel ÖZTAN, Digital Platform Designer and Operator
Sibel Öztan Moyano completed her undergraduate study in Istanbul Technical University, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, and her master’s degree in Boğaziçi University, Bio-Medical Engineering Department. She started her doctorate study in Imperial College London in 1988 and continued in Boğaziçi University, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department until the thesis stage. She worked as IT Director in Superonline A.Ş. between 1995 and 1999 and as Project Director in Mynet between 1999 and 2000. Between 2001 and 2006, Moyano continued to work as Internet Projects Director at Boğaziçi University, Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department and played a role in giving technical support and in developing applications for the foundation of internet library for the visually-impaired at the same university. After her past experience of twenty years in information technologies field in public and private sectors, in 2000, she founded SyberiumTechs which mainly offers services on the development of internet applications. She also provides Website designing, application development, maintenance and operations services to organisations and corporations working in different areas, especially education and healthcare sectors.
Buse GÜVEN GÜNAY, Workshop Lecturer (Classical Philology, Literary Criticism)
Buse Güven Günay was born in Gebze in 1993, and graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Bulgarian Language and Literature Department in 2016, and from Ankara University, Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Latin Language and Literature Department in 2021. In 2020, she started her master’s program in Istanbul University, Institute of Social Sciences, Latin Language and Literature Department. At present, she is continuing her master’s thesis on “Conceptual Metaphors in the Poems of Phaedrus” at the same department under the supervision of Assistant Professor, Dr. Ekin ÖYKEN.
Pınar ÇELİKEL (Project Press Secretary)
Born in Çorlu, Tekirdağ in 1978. She continued her education in Tekirdağ, Hatay, Kars and İstanbul due to her parents’ civil service. She graduated from the Department of Journalism, Faculty of Communications, İstanbul University. She worked as a reporter and editor for Yeni Yüzyıl Newspaper’s Culture and Art section between 1995-2000. She specifically wrote articles and did interviews about theatre. She worked as the editor of book and exhibition catalogues at Yapı Kredi Culture Arts and Publishing, between 2001 and 2004. Later on, she worked as publishing director in Vatan’s Weekend Newspaper and In Style, All, Madame Figaro magazines respectively. Her first novel, “35 Çok Güzel, Gelsene” was published in June 2017 by Artemis Publishing. Her other novels, “Kendimi Ararken Seni Buldum” was published in October 2018, “Ya Bir Bulutsam” was published in October 2020 by Artemis Publishing. She is currently teaching lessons on media entrepreneurship and creative writing at faculties of communication of various universities (including Okan University). She is the editor of O2, culture and arts section of the Oksijen Newspaper. She is also a 3rd class student at Ancient Greek Language and Literature Department, Faculty of Letters, İstanbul University as her second Bachelor’s Degree. She is especially working on Ancient Greek, Latin, Ancient Philosophy, tragedies and comedies from original texts.
Researchers Contributing to the Project:
Dr. Pelin ATAYMAN ERÇELİK (Classical Philology)
Dr. Bengü CENNET COŞKUN (Classical Philology)
Dr. Neslihan DEMEZ (Translation Studies)
Project Execution Assistants
Tuğçe ÖREN (MA) (Translation Studies)
Aysude KURT (Translation Studies)
Buse GÜVEN GÜNAY (Classical Philology)
Project Press Secretary
Pınar ÇELİKEL
Photos
Jennifer Lescouet (Levent Beşkardeş Photographs)
Logo Design
Salih Gürkan Çakar
Translation of the Site into Other Languages
French: Translated by Berk Author and revised by Zeynep Oral.
English: Translated by İpek Held and revised by Pelin Atayman Erçelik.
