Yaprak Yildirim

I received my degrees in Management (BA, 2017), English Language and Literature (BA, 2017), and Critical and Cultural Studies (MA, 2019) from Boğaziçi University, İstanbul. I continued my education as a PhD student at the Literature department of the University of California San Diego for two years before joining the Yale community. In the broadest sense, my research at Yale examines the structures that normalize femicide in liminal spaces between the white west and “the other” by converting women’s bodies into exchangeable commodities. I pay specific attention to the role neoliberalization, westernization, and Islamist fundamentalism play in the disposability of women and the construction of “proper” womanhood. Currently, I am interested in exploring how femicide becomes “affordable” in the neoliberal crime market of Turkey through the family politics of the Islamist regime. I am a feminist activist, organizer, poet, translator, and Fulbright alumna.