Mr Erdem Avsar

  • Tutor in Media, Culture and Society (Sociological & Cultural Studies)

Biography

I am a researcher, playwright, and translator. My research is transdisciplinary and cuts across sociology of culture, utopian thinking, performance studies, gender and queer theory, creative methods and methodologies, and politics of representation in popular culture and media.

My PhD research in Sociology and Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow has looked at the queer politics of theatre-making in Turkey and dramaturgies of grief and hope. 

I have delivered lectures and seminars internationally, including working as a tutor in Sociology Level 1 here at the University of Glasgow and on the Summer School Sociology, teaching sociology of genders and sexualities and sociology of the media. I also worked as a research assistant at the British Academy-funded research project, LLAMIS (Language Learning and Migrant 'Integration' in Scotland), co-led by Dr Francesca Stella and Prof Rebecca Kay. I have also been acting as the Co-PI of a British Council-funded project (2023-24), Performance Ecologies: Towards a Good Life.

I am an also an affiliate artist at UNESCO RILA collaborating with the network on multilingual performative-poetic projects. My plays have been shown in Scotland and Italy. I was the 2019 recipient of the Kevin Elyot Award (University of Bristol Theatre Collection). My creative work has recently appeared in clavmag, Lune Journal, in the anthology The Book of Bad Betties (Bad Betty Press), and in Collaborative Playwriting edited by Paul Castagno (Routledge).

 

Research interests

My research interests include but are not limited to:

  • Gender, sexualities, and queerness,
  • Politics of representation,
  • Sociology of the media,
  • Utopian thinking in the arts and culture,
  • Creative methods and methodologies.

Grants

Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Interdisciplinary PhD Scholarship, College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow (2019-2023)

British Council Creative Collaborations Grant (2023-2024)

Teaching

I teach on the MSc in Media, Culture and Society programme.