Students in our department have taken part in a wide range of activities outside the classroom, including plays and other dramatic productions, film nights, poetry readings, creative writing workshops, and seminars. Many of these activities have been student-led, while others have been organised or facilitated by members of faculty. Below are some photographs from past department activities involving students and faculty:
Poetry Readings
The department has held a number of poetry readings over the years, at which faculty and students have recited or performed together. Usually held in Bilkent Library’s Gallery, these events have often showcased work that had its beginnings in the department’s creative writing workshops.
Drama Workshops
Since Prof. Talat Halman founded the department it has had a special relationship to Shakespeare and his works. The department has held a number of talks and performance workshops dedicated to Shakespeare – in the images below you can see students’ performances and adaptations of scenes from Hamlet, Antony and Cleopatra, and other plays.
Shakespeare Workshops
Dramatic Productions
Triestine Joyce, by Don Randall – an original play by a former member of faculty, set during James Joyce’s sojourn in Trieste.
The Salvation of Stephen Dedalus – an adaptation to the stage of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written and directed by former member of faculty Prof. Don Randall, and featuring faculty and students acting alongside each other.
Blood Wedding – a 2012 production of Federico García Lorca’s play directed by Erdi Mamikoğlu, then a student of the Department of Performance Art, and Dr Gül Kurtuluş of the Department of English Language and Literature as Stage Director.
The Importance of Being Earnest – a 2009 production of Oscar Wilde’s play directed by Dr Gül Kurtuluş of the Department of English Language and Literature.
Arms and the Man – a 2009 production of George Bernard Shaw’s play directed by Dr Gül Kurtuluş of the Department of English Language and Literature.
Academic events
Acts of Literary Creation: An Undergraduate Conference
19 April 2024
From storytelling and architectural design to moviemaking and economic production, the act of creating is intimately tied to our senses of self and community. What is creativity? What constitutes a creation? What constitutes a creature? What are the political implications of the act of creation? How might an attention to creativity impact our understandings of the history of literary thought?
“Literature and Sustainability” lecture series
In 2022, as part of Bilkent’s “Year of Sustainability,” the Departments of English Language and Literature and American Culture and Literature hosted a lecture series on “Literature and Sustainability.”
- John Parham (University of Worcester): “News from Somewhere: How Nineteenth-Century Writers Imagined Sustainability.” 4 April 2022.
- Vesna Kuiken (University at Albany, State University of New York): “Life on the Rocks: Celia Thaxter on Ecological Memory.” 21 April 2022.
- Priscilla Ybarra (University of North Texas): “Sustainability or Reciprocity?: Why Stories Matter.” 10 May 2022.