© Can Cakir

Can Çakır

English Department
Universität Münster
Johannisstr. 12-20
48143 Münster
Germany

Room: ES129
Phone: +49-(0)251-83-24823
E-mail: ccakir@uni-muenster.de

Office hours in winter semester 24/25: by appointment via e-mail.

 


 

 

Can Çakır was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied political science and public administration in French and English at Marmara University, Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lyon and Universitat Pompeu Fabra before graduating from the MA NTS program at the University of Münster. Currently, he is a PhD student at the Graduate School Practices of Literature. His PhD dissertation is about the critique of neoliberal ideology in selected Marxist and anarchist utopian texts. From July 2022 until January 2024, he held the MA NTS student advisory position.

  • Publications, Talks and Conference Papers

    Journal Articles

    • 2025. "Unraveling the Ideological Illusion of Work-Life Balance: Lessons from Severance." Science Fiction Film and Television. Forthcoming.
    • 2018. "A Brief Gramscian Analysis of the First Five Years of the AKP: How the Organic Intellectuals of Turkey Helped Cement the Power of Erdoğan and His Party." Satura, 1: 35-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17879/satura-2018-3142.

    Book Chapter

    • 2025. "Renegotiating the Utopian “No-Place” in Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway." In Fantastic Geographies, edited by Christian Lenz, Kristin Aubel, and Sarah Neef, Cambridge Scholars. Forthcoming.

    Translation

    • 2017. Ay Zalim Bir Sevgilidir. İthaki Yayınları, Istanbul. Translated from the English original, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein, first published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1966.

    Talks and Conference Papers

    • 2024. 'Workplace Democracy on Screen: The Unionization Struggle in Superstore'. Popular Culture and Democracy: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Way Forward, Uni Freiburg, 25/10/2024 [presented online].
    • 2024. 'Raging Against the Corporate Machine in Nnedi Okorafor’s Noor'. Electricdreams – Between Fiction and Society III. Conflicts and Margins: Imagining Otherness, Ecocatastrophes, Perpetual War, Technological Imbalance, and Systemic Injustice Through Speculative Fiction, Università IULM, 10/10/2024.
    • 2023. Discussant for 'From Festivals and Sports to Arts and Crafts: The Power of Popular Culture in Morocco' by Amina Boubia. Part of the international workshop 'Plurality Contested: Moroccan Cultural and Intellectual Production as the New Political'. Uni Münster, 01/12/2023.
    • 2023. 'Unraveling the Illusion of "Work-Life Balance": Lessons from Severance'. Disruptive Imaginations, Joint Annual Conference of the Association for Research in the Fantastic (GfF) and Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), TU Dresden, 15/08/2023.
    • 2022. 'Renegotiating the Utopian "No-Place" in Cory Doctorow's Walkaway'. Fantastic Geographies, 13th Annual Conference of the Association for Research in the Fantastic (GfF), TU Dortmund, 22/09/2022.
    • 2022. 'Envisioning an Anarchist Future in Cory Doctorow's Walkaway'. Anarchist Futures, Anarchist Studies Conference 7, online, 24/08/2022.
    • 2022. 'Gezi Park: A Glimpse of a Post-Catastrophic Utopia'. Summer School: "Tacet ad Libitum! Towards a Poetics and Politics of Silence", Uni Münster, 27/07/2022.
    • 2022. 'Mediating Scarcity and Abundance Through Utopia in Cory Doctorow's Walkaway'. Abundance and Scarcity, International Conference for Early Career Researchers, Bordeaux Montaigne University, 18/02/2022.
    • 2022. 'Nowhere/Somewhere Better Than This: The Critique of Neoliberal Ideology in Marxist and Anarchist Utopian Literature'. Lecture Series 'Hotspots in Literary/Cultural Studies and Linguistics', Uni Münster, 18/01/2022.
    • 2021. 'Catastrophe as a Utopian Premise'. Graduate Student Symposium 'Silence - Catastrophe - Crisis', Uni Münster, 03/12/2021.

  • CV

    Education

    2020 - present   PhD candidate, Graduate School Practices of Literature, University of Münster

    2017 - 2020       Master of Arts in National and Transnational Studies, University of Münster

    2016 - 2017       Master in Current Democracies: Nationalism, Federalism and Multiculturalism, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

    2008 - 2015       Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Public Administration (in French), Marmara University, Istanbul

    2010 - 2011       Certificat d'Etudes Politiques (Erasmus Exchange Programme), Sciences Po Lyon

    2004 - 2008       Kadıköy Anadolu Lisesi, Istanbul

    Positions

    2020 - present  Research Associate and Lecturer, Chair of English, Postcolonial and Media Studies, University of Münster

    2022 - 2024       Student Advisor for the MA NTS Programme, University of Münster

    2018 - 2019       Research Assistant, University of Münster

    2018 - 2019       Student Tutor, University of Münster

  • Teaching

    Winter Semester 24/25

    Seminar: Alternate History Novels [098762]

    Summer Semester 24

    Practical language course: Academic Skills: Group II [096701]
    Colloquium: Graduate School Practices of Literature [co-teaching with AOR Dr. Barbara Winckler]

    Winter Semester 23/24

    Seminar: Übung Theory and Literature (Group IV): Speculative Futurisms [094762]
    Seminar: Übung Theory and Literature (Group VI): Speculative Futurisms [094764]

    Winter Semester 22/23

    Seminar: Constructing a (Critical) Future in Utopias and Dystopias [090851]
    Seminar: Übung Theory and Literature (Group III) - Imagining Alternative Futures: Utopias and Dystopias [090764]

    Summer Semester 22

    Seminar: Undergraduate Research Class II (Literary Studies) [099092]

    Winter Semester 21/22

    Seminar: Narratives of Resistance and Liberation [096757]

    Summer Semester 21

    Grundkurs: Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Gruppe VII [094974]

    Winter Semester 20/21

    Practical language course: Academic Skills: Gruppe IV [092866]