Nâlân Erbil
Credentials: Turkish (German+)
Position title: Teaching Faculty II
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Email: erbil@wisc.edu
Address:
Office number: 840 Van Hise Hall
Language(s): Turkish, Azerbaijani, Ottoman, Arabic, Persian
Research/Language Interests: 19th c. Ottoman and post-imperial Turkish literature; theories of post-colonial/world literatures; migration; cultural studies; visuality
Name pronunciation: NAH-lahn U-er-beel
About: As an interdisciplinary teacher-scholar, I teach literature, migration, and Turkish language and culture courses. Currently I have concurrent research projects one of which theorizes an Ottoman and Turkish literary critical-ethical method implicit in the concept and practices of edeb(iyat). My other project investigates Germanness in Turkish and Turkishness in German literary productions through comparatively analyzing multi-genre texts written in and translated to Turkish by Turkish and Turkish German authors.
In addition to teaching and research, I have served as the Pedagogy Director of The Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Language Institute and the federally funded Turkish Flagship Language Initiative from 2020 to 2024.
Growing up in the rural southwestern Turkey, I identify as a first-generation college graduate and academic. My ancestors were nomadic goatherders (yörüks) from the West Taurus Mountains in Anatolia who became settled two generations ago.
Affiliated Departments: Middle East Studies Program, Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia, Center for European Studies, Kemal H. Karpat Center for Turkish Studies
Education:
– University of Wisconsin-Madison, PhD in Asian Languages and Cultures (2018) with a PhD minor in Comparative Literature
– University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA in Languages and Cultures of Asia (2012)
– Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Graduate Coursework in Turkish and Islamic Art and Architecture (2007-2008)
– Boğaziçi University (Istanbul), BA in English (2007)
Courses Taught:
(Language)
– Elementary Turkish (GNS 339 First Semester Turkish & GNS 340 Second Semester Turkish)
– Intermediate Turkish (GNS 439 Third Semester Turkish & GNS 440 Fourth Semester Turkish)
– Advanced Turkish (GNS 539 Fifth Semester Turkish GNS 540 Sixth Semester Turkish & Azeri/Ottoman)
(Literature/Culture)
– Berlin-Istanbul Connections: Reimagining Germany (GNS 270/GERMAN 278)
– Nation, History, Family in Turkish TV and Film (GNS 270) AY 2020-2021
Recent Publications:
2025 “Towards a Cultures in Motion or Turkish-Language Literature as German Literature?” Cultures in Motion: Migration, Exile, and Refuge, Ed. Ela Gezen and Ben Schofield, Transnational Approaches to Culture, DeGruyter (forthcoming).
2025 World Readiness Standards for Turkish, co-edited with Ebru S Ergul, Sibel Crum, Ilknur Lider, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (forthcoming).
2024 Cultural Scenarios for The Language Flagship Culture Initiative, University of Hawaai (Author of open access scenarios to foster intercultural competence as part of a three-year project).
2017 “Language, Aesthetics, and Ideology: Conceptual Frameworks for Turkish Literary Criticism” Monograf Journal 8, Summer 2017. pp. 24-58.
Awards:
(Academic and Service Awards)
2018 Graduate Academic Achievement Award, International Student Services, UW-Madison.
2017 Impactful Mentor Award by a Graduating Student in the College of Letters & Science, UW-Madison.
2016 Campus-Wide Teaching Assistant Award (“Innovation in Teaching”), UW-Madison.
2015 Selected as Future Faculty Partner to the Teaching Academy, UW-Madison.
2012 International Student Academic Achievement Award, International Student Services, UW-Madison.
2002 University Entrance Exam Award, Turkey (Ranked in the top 1% nationwide).
(Fellowships and Scholarships)
Summer 2018 Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship, UW-Madison.
Summer 2016 Full Scholarship, 2016 Ottoman Summer School at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul (declined).
Summer 2013 Full Tuition Waiver for Intermediate Summer Immersion Arabic, UW-Madison.
2011-2018 Full Tuition Waiver, UW-Madison.
(Institutional Grants as Project Member)
2021-2023 Culture Initiative Grant (2021-2023), Regional Flagship Language Initiative, Defense Language and National Security Education Office and the Institute of International Education, UW-Madison ($200,000.00).
2020-2024 Turkish Flagship Language Initiative Grant awarded to UW-Madison, The Institute of International Education ($950,357.00).