Dr. Murat Sezi
Murat Sezi is currently working on his habilitation, which examines the integration of anthropological assumptions in utopian narrative literature from the fin de siècle to the present day and shows the extent to which these assumptions were and are constantly changing. He also teaches literary studies (UK/US) at the University of Kassel. His areas of specialization include utopian and dystopian literature, climate change fiction, fantasy and science fiction as well as film and media studies. He is also a founding member of the iAG Climate Thinking.
Scientific career
| Since 2022 | Post-doc at the Institute for English and American Studies |
2014-2022 | Doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the University of Kassel on the topic: Stories about the Dangers of Knowing. An Analytical Model for the Representation of Knowledge in Fantasy Literature on the Example of Novels by China Miéville, Terry Pratchett, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Expert opinion: Prof. Dr. Susanne Bach, Prof. Dr. René Schallegger; Disputation: 13.04.2022 |
2013 | Master of Arts English and American Studies |
2011 | Bachelor of Arts English and American Studies, minor in History |
2007-2013 | Studies at the Universities of Kassel and Göttingen |
Professional career
| 2015-2022 | Tutor trainer for the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies, University of Kassel |
Since 2014 | Research assistant to Prof. Dr. Susanne Bach at the Institute for English and American Studies, University of Kassel |
| 2013-2014 | Lecturer for special tasks with Prof. Dr. Daniel Göske at the Institute for English and American Studies, University of Kassel |
2012-2013 | Lecturer at the Institute for English and American Studies, University of Kassel |
Monograph
2022 | China Miéville, Terry Pratchett, Kazuo Isiguro and the Ambivalence of Knowing: An Analytical Model for the Representation of Knowledge in Fantasy Literature. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2022. |
Articles in anthologies and journals
2020 | "The Technologized Creation. The Mythological Foundation of Posthumanism in EX MACHINA". In: Emily Eder and Sonja Klimek (eds.). Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung 7(2). doi: doi.org/10.16995/zff.2888. (with Felix Woitkowski). |
2019 | "Eros and ethos in Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum: Of invading vampires, penetrating witches and split-off lust". In: Susanne Bach (ed.). Eroticism in Literature and Theater. WVT 2019. pp. 115-134 (with Katharina Debney). |
2018 | "Spaces, borders, transgressions. On the appropriation of space by female characters in Mad Men". In: Urania Milevski, Paul Reszke and Felix Böhm (eds.). Gender and Genre: Popular Seriality between Critical Reception and Gender Theoretical Reflection. Königshausen and Neumann 2018. pp. 125-148. |
| 2015 | "Gender, Genre, Mythology: Functions of Light and Darkness in Terry Pratchett's Feet of Clay and Thud!". In: Susanne Bach and Folkert Degenring (eds.). Dark Nights, Bright Lights. Night, Darkness and Illumination in Literature, Film and Music. De Gruyter 2015. page 163-181. |
| 2024 | 15th Annual Conference of the Society for Fantastic Research "Fantastic Climates", September 05-07, University of Kassel |
| 2022 | The transcription of thought experiments in narrative media using the example of Ex Machina: literary and linguistic perspectives. Lecture at the workshop "Gedankenexperimente und ihre narrativen Szenarien" at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Kassel on June 18, 2022, together with Felix Böhm. |
2021 | The representation of climate change in English literature. Introductory lecture to the lecture series of the teaching and research focus Climate Thinking on 12.05.2021, University of Kassel. |
| 2020 | Post-Structuralism as an approach to gender studies using the example of the literary concept of intertextuality. Lecture series of the study program of the Interdisciplinary Working Group Women's and Gender Studies (IAG FG) on 16.12.2020, University of Kassel. |
2019 | Posthuman Bodies and Identities: The Myth-Gender Nexus in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049. Junior Researcher Conference "Intersections of Gender and Myth in Canadian Culture and Media" of the German Association for Canadian Studies at the University of Kassel on June 29, 2019. |
2019 | Center, Periphery, Colony: Spaces of Knowledge in China Miéville's The Scar. Joint annual conference "Postcolonial Oceans - Contradictions and Heterogeneities in the Epistemes of Salt Water" by GAPS and IACPL at the University of Bremen on June 2, 2019. |
2019 | Forms of Knowledge and Ways of Knowing in Novels by Kazuo Ishiguro, China Miéville, and Terry Pratchett. Conference of the doctoral program GeKKo of the Faculty of Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Kassel in Hofgeismar on 26.04.2019. |
| 2019 | Poststructuralism and Deconstruction: Using the Example of Teresa de Lauretis' "The Technology of Gender". Lecture series of the study program of the Interdisciplinary Working Group Women's and Gender Studies (IAG FG) on 16.01.2019, University of Kassel. |
2018 | The Technologized Creation: The Mythological Foundation of Posthumanism in Ex Machina. "Techniken der Fantastik" - Ninth Annual Conference of the Society for Fantastic Research at the Université de Fribourg, Switzerland on 06.09.2018. |
2018 | All the Mirrors of the World: Reflections of the Past in Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. Lecture series "Gender and Genre III" of the Institute for German Studies at the University of Kassel on 31.01.2018. |
2017 | Functions of the library in contemporary English-language fantasy literature. Lecture "Fiktive Bibliotheken" by Prof. Dr. Jan-Henrik Witthaus (Literaturwissenschaft Romanistik) on 29.06.2017 at the University of Kassel, together with Katharina Debney. |
2016 | Feminist film analysis. Introductory lecture to the film discussion series "Gender and Essentialism" of the Interdisciplinary Working Group Women's and Gender Studies (IAG FG) on 03.05.2016, University of Kassel. |
| 2015 | Perspectives of the Frankfurt School on Film and Television. Lecture series "Variants of Cultural Studies" of the Institute for Romance Studies at the University of Kassel on 09.06.2015. |
2015 | Finding a Room of One's Own in a Mad Men's World: Space as a Means of Staging Gender Roles. Lecture series "Gender and Genre I" of the Institute for German Studies at the University of Kassel on 28.01.2015, together with Hannah-Luna Braunewell. |
2014-2018 | The concept of "Doing Gender" using the example of Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls". Lecture series of the study program of the Interdisciplinary Working Group Women's and Gender Studies (IAG FG), University of Kassel. Recurring lecture, held in the winter semesters 2014/15-2017/18. |