ACADEMIC POSITIONS
May 2019-
Boğaziçi University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Istanbul TR
Assistant Professor
June 2014 – May 2019
Boğaziçi University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, Istanbul TR
Part-time Instructor
February 2017 – June 2017
Boğaziçi University, Department of History, Istanbul TR
Part-time Instructor
December 2014 – December 2016
University of St. Andrews School of History, Fife, Scotland, UK
ERC project: The Islamisation of Anatolia, c. 1100-1500, Research Fellow
November 2013 – April 2014
University of St. Andrews School of History, UK
The Islamisation of Anatolia, c. 1100-1500, Research Consultant
October 2011 – June 2013
Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, TR
Research Assistant
EDUCATION
November 2010 – June 2017
Sorbonne University École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, FR
PhD in Islamic Civilization
October 2006 -June 2010
Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, TR
MA in Turkish Language and Literature
Area: Classical Turkish Literature
September 2002 -June 2006
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA
BA in Comparative Literature (French and English Literatures)
September 1995 – June 2002
Robert College, Istanbul, TR
GRADUATE RESEARCH
November 2010 – June 2017
École Pratique des Hautes Études, PhD Dissertation
“The Perfect Man in Bektashism and Alevism”
June 2009 – June 2010
Boğaziçi University, Master’s Thesis
“Kaygusuz Abdâl’s Mesnevî-i Baba Kaygusuz: Critical Edition and Textual Analysis”
March 2005 – June 2006
Dartmouth College, Senior Thesis
“Cities of the Imagination: Texts as Photographs in Pierre Loti’s Aziyadé
and Fantôme d’Orient, Patrick Modiano’s Rue des Boutiques Obscures and Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy”
ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS
December 2021 – February 2026
Nafi Baba Sufism, History and Cultural Heritage Research Center
Vice Director
November 2020 – November 2023
Boğaziçi University Department of Turkish Language and Literature
Vice Chair
July 2020 –
Boğaziçi University Department of Turkish Language and Literature
Erasmus Coordinator
December 2019 – December 2021
Nafi Baba Sufism, History and Cultural Heritage Research Center
Executive Board Member (deputy)
May 2021 –
Nazım Hikmet Culture and Art Research Center
Board Member
AWARDS
Science Academy’s Young Scientist Awards Program (BAGEP 2025) winner in the field of Literature; BAGEP 2025 in Social Sciences in Memory of Asım Kocabıyık
SCIENTIFIC BOARDS
Institut français d’islamologie (since 2022)
Zemin Edebiyat, Dil ve Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi, peer-reviewed journal (since 2021)
The Federation of Alevi Foundations (AVF), Research Prize in Alevi and Bektashi Studies (since 2022)
Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Veli Araştırma Dergisi, peer-reviewed journal (since 2022)
PUBLICATIONS
Books
I am the Essence of God: Kaygusuz Abdal and Dervish Poetry (with a translation of the Book of Prattle). Brill,
forthcoming.
Yolcu Benem Menzil Benem: Tasavvuf ve Alevi-Bektaşi Edebiyatı İncelemeleri, Alfa Kitap, 2026.
Mesnevî-i Baba Kaygusuz. Massachusetts: Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 2013. 320 pp.
Peer-reviewed articles & book chapters
With Ulaş Özdemir, “Deyiş in Transmission: Alevi Music and Poetry as Religious Tradition.” In “Religion and its History in Turkey,” ed. Gökçen Beyinli and Mark Soileau, New Perspectives on Turkey, forthcoming.
“Sufi Metaphysics as Literary Theory: Şeyh Galib’s Beauty and Love.” In Pre-modern Comparative Literary Practice in the Multilingual Islamic World, ed. Hany Rashwan and David Larsen. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
“Anadolu’da Türkçe Edebiyatın Doğuşu ve Mesnevi Nazım Biçimi: Yerelleşme, İcra, Ritüel.” Nesir: Edebiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi 8 (2025):127-152.
“Selfhood and Mystical Meaning in the Poetry of Yunus Emre.” In Handbook of Turkish Literature, ed. Didem Havlioğlu and Zeynep Uysal. Routledge, 2023, 40-55.
“Alevism as Islam: Rethinking Shahab Ahmed’s Conceptualization of Islam through Alevi Poetry.” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Vol. 49 No 2 (2022): 305-326.
“Historicizing Alevism: The Evolution of Abdal and Bektashi Doctrine.” Journal of Shi’a Islamic Studies Vol. 13 No 3-4 (2020): 425-456.
“Alevi-Bektashi Literature as a Discursive Tradition: Interpretive Strategies, Orality, Charisma Loyalty,” In “Entangled Literatures and Histories in the Premodern Ottoman World,” ed. N. İpek Hüner Cora and Michael Pifer, special issue, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association Vol 7. No 2 (2020): 33-53.
“The şaṭḥiyye of Yūnus Emre and Ḳayġusuz Abdāl: The Creation of a Vernacular Islamic Tradition in Turkish.” Turcica 50 (2019): 9-52.
Other articles and book chapters
“The Saint’s Presence as Sensory Regime in the Hagiography of Ḥacı Bektāş.” Islamic Sensory History, 1500-2000, ed. Christian Lange et al. Brill, forthcoming.
“The Masnavi Form and the Beginnings of Islamic Literary Culture in Anatolia.” In Jalal al-Din Rumi and his Legacy: Religion, Literature and Culture Between Medieval Anatolia and the Persianate World, 13th-14th Centuries.” ed. Andrew Peacock, Scott Redford and Richard McClary. Gingko Library, forthcoming.
“The Speaking Qur’an in Alevism: Poetry and the Word of God.” In Esotericism and the Qur’an / L’ésotérisme et le Coran, ed. Wissam Halawi and Bruce Fudge, forthcoming.
“Ottoman Dervish Poetry in the Sixteenth Century: The Religious and Poetic Discourse of Muḥyiddīn Abdāl.” In Festschrift to Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, ed. Mathieu Terrier and Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, Brepols, forthcoming.
“Bir Bilim Sahasının Doğuşu: Alevilik Çalışmalarının Metodolojisi Ne Olmalı?” In Sosyal Bilimler Perspektifinden Aleviler ve Alevilik 1, ed. Şükrü Aslan, Çiğdem Boz, Cemal Salman. Ütopya Yayınevi, 2023.
“Alevilik Bize Güncel İslam Tartışmaları Hakkında Ne Söyler?” In “Dinin Geleceği,” ed. Ayşe Çavdar and Volkan Ertit, special issue, Pasajlar Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi Vol. 8 (2021): 53-78.
“Erken Dönem Bektaşi ve Abdal Şiirinde Farsçanın Rolü: Kaygusuz Abdal Örneği.” Festschrift in Honor of Zehra Toska, ed. Fatma Büyükkarcı Yılmaz and Tülay Gençtürk Demircioğlu, Journal of Turkish Studies: Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları Vol 54 (2020): 251-264.
“Yunus Emre Şiirleri ve Kemal Ümmi’nin Kırk Armağan’ının 15. Yüzyıla Ait Bilinmeyen Bir Yazması Üzerine.” Journal of Turkish Studies: Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları 50 (2018): 389-398.
“Giriş: Aleviliğin ve Bektaşiliğin Kültürel ve Edebi Kaynaklarını Nasıl Anlarız?” Special Section on Alevi-Bektashi Literature, ed. Zeynep Oktay Uslu, Şerhh Şiir ve Eleştiri Dergisi 6 (2017): 112-117.
“Yunus Emre ve Kaygusuz Abdal’ın Türkçe Şathiyeleri: Yerel Bir Dindarlık Geleneği Nasıl Doğdu?” Special Section on Alevi-Bektashi Literature, ed. Zeynep Oktay Uslu, Şerhh Şiir ve Eleştiri Dergisi 6 (2017): 176-199.
“Layers of Mystical Meaning and Social Context in the Works of Kaygusuz Abdal.” In A.C.S. Peacock and Sara Nur Yıldız (eds). Literature and Intellectual Life in Fourteenth- and Fifteenth-century Anatolia. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag Würzburg in Kommission (Istanbuler Texte und Studien), 2016, 73-99.
“Hüseyin Ferhad İçin Üç Kör Nokta.” Yeniyazı 9 (2011): 50-61.
Preface. Berlinde Üç Gün. By Ahmet Mithat. Istanbul: Notos Kitap, 2009, pp.13-20
Translations
(Trans. Zeynep Oktay). Corbin, Henry. Bir’le Bir Olmak: İbn Arabî Tasavvufunda Yaratıcı Muhayyile. Istanbul: Pinhan Yayınevi, 2013.
(Ed. Zeynep Oktay). Ahmet Mithat Efendi. Berlinde Üç Gün. Istanbul: Notos Kitap, 2009.
Poetry Book
Soy. Istanbul: Epona Kitap, 2026
Birlerken. Istanbul: Epona Kitap, 2024
LANGUAGES
Turkish (Native), English (Proficient),
Ottoman Turkish (Proficient), French (Proficient),
Persian (Advanced), Arabic (Advanced), Russian (Intermediate)