Invited Talks and Conference Presentations
| 2026 |
| “Speculative Waters: Ecological Memory and Caring for Ruins in the Mediterranean.” OSL Symposium on Literature, Care, and the Ethics of Living in Southwest Asia and North Africa. Utrecht University. |
| 2025 |
“Future Narratives and Ecology: The Possibilities of Science Fiction as a Genre and Method.” Creative Ecologies: Thinking with Arts and Humanities, Özyegin University, Istanbul (Invited talk) “Spekülatif Kurmacada Güncel Tartismalar (Current Debates in Speculative Fiction)." The 4th Berkol Science Fiction Days, Özgen Berkol Dogan Science Fiction Library, Istanbul. (Invited talk) |
| 2024 |
“Urban Futures in Arabic Speculative Fiction." The 17th Pan-European Conference on International Relations, Université Catholique de Lille, Lille, France. “Decolonizing Futures." And then what? From Narratives and Scenarios to Climate Action 2024 Workshop. Leiden University (Invited talk) “The Ways Futures Arrive.” Foresight Talk. European Commission (Online, Invited talk) “The Aesthetics of Extraction and Planetary Futures in Arabic Climate Fiction.” The Aesthetics of Geopower: Imagining Planetary Histories and Hegemonies Conference. University of Amsterdam (Accepted, unable to attend) "Embodying Climate Change: Planetary Aesthetics and Ecological Modernity in Turkish Climate Fiction." American Comparative Literature Association Conference (Accepted, unable to attend) “Planetary Perspectives on Nature and Utopia in a Nineteenth Century Ottoman-Turkish Manuscript.” Conceptual Approaches to the Late Ottoman-Turkish Literary Field Workshop. University of Bologna (Co-presented with Alp Eren Topal) "Ends of Language in the Anthropocene." Georgia State University (Invited talk) |
| 2022 |
Walking Seminar. Paviljong Våtmark and The Oslo School of Environmental Humanities (Invited talk) “Arabic Science Fiction and Planetary Aesthetics: A Historical Approach to Genre.” Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oslo (Invited talk) “Spekülatif Kurgu ve Ekoloji.” Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi, Kadin Arastirmalari Uygulama ve Arastirma Merkezi (Invited talk) “The Future of Stories: Hassan Blasim’s Speculative Ecologies and Arabfuturisms.” European Association for Modern Arabic Literature Conference |
| 2021 |
“Envisioning Middle Eastern Futures.” University of Oslo and the Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University (Invited talk) “Ends of Language in the Anthropocene.” The College of New Jersey (Invited talk) “‘Bad Environmentalism’ in Contemporary Arabic Fiction.” Modern Language Association Conference |
| 2020 |
“Urban Ecology and Literary Form in Ahmed Naji's Using Life.” Middle East Studies Association Conference “Conceptualizing the Anthropocene in Arabic Speculative Fiction.” Modern Language Association Conference |
| 2019 |
“Ecological Futures and Biopolitics in Iraq+100.” Middle East Studies Association Conference Narratives of Occupation: Palestine, Iraq, Syria. (Roundtable) Modern Language Association Conference “Seeking to Lose Oneself: Disappearance and Immanence in Hasan Ali Toptas’s Gölgesizler.” Modern Language Association Conference |
| 2018 |
“Reading Baudrillard in Istanbul: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in Murat Mentes’s Dublörün Dilemmasi.” Middle East Studies Association Conference “Amnesiac Futures: Environmental Destruction and Dehumanization in Iraqi Speculative Fiction.” Northeast Modern Languages Association Conference “Utopian Impulses and Artistic Agency in Tawfiq al-Hakim’s Poet on the Moon.” Modern Language Association Conference |
| 2017 |
| “On Self, Seeds, and Specters: Poetics of Potentiality and Female Diasporic Subjectivities in Lisa Suhair Majaj's Geographies of Light.” Middle East Studies Association Conference |
| 2016 |
| “Autopsy of a Landscape: Politics of Visibility and Ethics of Narration in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference |
| 2015 |
| “Inscribing Women into Time: Sevim Burak’s Yanik Saraylar as a Counter-discursive History of Turkish Modernity.” American Comparative Literature Association Conference |