Occupation
Graduate Student (Doctoral)
ABOUT
Zeynep Nur Şimşek is a PhD student in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures at the University of Bologna and a researcher on the ERC-funded NONWESTLIT
project. She received her MA in Turkish Literature from Bilkent University in 2021, with a
thesis focusing on primate narratives in late Ottoman literature. During her master’s studies,
she taught Turkish courses at Bilkent University and published articles in literary journals. Her
recent work includes analyzing nineteenth-century Ottoman journals using digital humanities
methods within the NONWESTLIT project, as well as collaborating on a database documenting
literary debates from the late Ottoman period. Her dissertation in progress examines the
reception of French Enlightenment thought in Ottoman literature. Her research interests include
late Ottoman literature, conceptual history, animal studies, and minority literatures.
Discipline
Literature
Sub Areas
19th-21st Centuries
Ottoman Studies
Turkish Studies
Modernization
Education
MA
| 2021
| Turkish Literature
| Bilkent University
BA
| 2018
| Turkish Language and Literature
| Istanbul Sehir University
BA
| 2018
| History
| Istanbul Sehir University
Abstracts
Fire of Malice or the Rising Sun from the West: Translating French Enlightenment into Ottoman Turkish