Portrait
Goethe University Frankfurt
Institute of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology
Prof. Dr. Hande Birkalan-Gedik's research areas are cultural anthropology, folklore and gender studies. Following her studies at Boğaziçi University Istanbul, she completed an M.A./Ph.D. program at Indiana University Bloomington in the USA at the Folklore Institute and Department and Department of Anthropology. She taught on topics such as migration, gender, nationalism, space and narratives, feminist theory and methods, research methods, anthropological theory and the history of folklore - among others in the USA, Europe (especially in Germany and Austria), Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.
Birkalan-Gedik is currently working in a DFG-eigene Stelle position with a research project "Traveling Theories: The History of Anthropology in Turkey (1850 - 1950)" at the Goethe University Frankfurt, where she was formerly a visiting professor and taught courses on Islam and women; gender and migration, Islam and gender in the transnational area and gender regime in Turkey; Fatherhood programs, and masculinity.
She is co-editor of the Gelenekten Geleceğe Antropoloji, an edited volume (Anthropology from the Past to the Future), 2005. She is the editor of the Sınırlar, İmajlar, Kühltürler (Borders, Images, Cultures), 2013, which also contains an article by Birkalan-Gedik on anthropology in Turkey. Birkalan-Gedik is the guest editor of a special issue on folklore of journal Folklor/Edebiyat (Folklore/ Literature), 2000. Her latest book, Feminist Antropoloji: Türkiye’den ve Dünyadan Kuelürlerarası Perspektifler (Feminist Anthropology: Intercultural Perspectives from Turkey and the World), is due for publication in 2020.
Theories and methods: cultural anthropological fieldwork, feminist theories and methods. Nationalism, post-colonialism. Performance theory. Political anthropology, transnational migration and transnationalism, migration and integration.
Research stays in: Turkey and Germany; Europe, USA, Central Asia, Middle East.
Specialization in cultural anthropology and folklore: Interactions between Turkish and German-speaking social science. History of cultural anthropology and folklore. World anthropologies. Ethnographies of modern Turkey. Anthropology of the City/Urban Practices. Islam and gender. Ethnicity and women, Alevis in Germany.
Genres: gender and art, oral history, memory culture, narrative and material culture.