Pelin Kivrak

Pelin Kivrak received her PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University in 2019. Her dissertation, “Imperfect Cosmopolitans: Representations of Responsibility and Hospitality in Contemporary Near Eastern Literatures, Film and Arts,” brings into question cosmopolitanism’s central moral imperative, hospitality, and examines representations of host-guest interactions in fictional and re-converted domestic spaces. The project attempts not only to shift the ancient concept’s focus away from the abstract cosmos to the personal interior, but also to dissociate cosmopolitanism from the loci that it has traditionally been associated with: Western philosophy, privileged classes, and academic discourse. Her current research considers artistic representations of migration and mobility from an interdisciplinary perspective by focusing on the history of European diasporas and refugee camps in the Middle East during World War II. In addition to her academic work in contemporary literatures and arts, she was a member of the creative team in Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence in 2011-12 and worked as a graduate research fellow at the Yale Center for British Art in 2018-19. She holds a BA degree in Literature from Harvard University.