Promotionskandidat:innen Gamze Altınyaprak

PhD Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Studies

DAAD-GSSP Fellow, Heidelberg Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HGGS)

Gamze Altınyaprak is a PhD researcher in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Heidelberg University. Her research focuses on humor as a form of resistance in Ottoman and Turkish culture, examining how humor functioned as a tool for marginalized voices to challenge dominant narratives. She investigates the use of cynical humor and power dynamics in various media, including caricatures, periodicals and literary works. She is a DAAD-GSSP scholarship holder and a member of the research group Caricatures and Cartoons in a Global Perspective: Visions, Roles, and Functions of Satire. https://caricatures.hypotheses.org/who-we-are

Before joining HGGS and the Heidelberg’s Faculty of Philosophy, she earned a master’s degree in Turkish Literature from Bilkent University, specializing in posthumanism in a comparative and intermedial context within Turkish culture and literature. Her master's thesis, Demonstrating Bodies, Bestial Machines: The Posthuman in Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil’s Short Stories, explores representations of the posthuman in Ottoman literature. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in American Culture and Literature from Hacettepe University. Additionally, she has a certificate in translation for literary and social science fields.

Alongside her research, she teaches Turkish language at Heidelberg University’s Central Language Laboratory.