As a UCL Mellon Fellow, Cüneyt's research focused on the concept of Queer in the contemporary Western and non-Western art scenes, treating queer art as a specific form of gender-conscious intergeneric transposition. He his particular research interest was in exploring queer pastiche, visual praxis of mimicry, and performative excess in those works - including film - whose aesthetic agendas play with, and exploit, the intersections between genre/gender and sex/sexuality.
Cuneyt was born and educated in Turkey. He was trained in chemical engineering and bioinformatics before turning to research in cultural studies at Istanbul Bilgi University. He came to the UK in 2005 to undertake doctoral research at UCL.
Degrees
- 2008: PhD in Gender Studies (Centre for Intercultural Studies), UCL Thesis: Disidentification, Mimicry, Melancholia and Image: Queer Reconfigurations in Contemporary Visual Arts
- 2005: MA in Cultural Studies, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey Thesis: Baiting the Straight: Cyber-queering Gay Male Pornography
- 2002: BSci in Chemical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
Scholarships & awards
- 2005-2008: UCL Graduate School Research Scholarship (full) UK
- 2005-2008: UCL and University of Warwick, Overseas Scholarship (ORSAS), UK
Publications
- Çakırlar, C. and Delice. S. (eds.) Cinsellik Muamması: Türkiye’de Queer Kültür ve Muhalefet [Queer Culture and Dissidence in Turkey], Istanbul: Metis, 2011.
- Çakırlar, C. and Güçlü, Ö. “Gender, Family, Home(land) in Contemporary Turkish Cinema: Comparative Readings on Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Reha Erdem and Ümit Ünal”, Contemporary Cultures of Resistance in the Middle East: Literature, Cinema and Music, edited by Karima Laachir and Saeed Talajooy (New York and London: Routledge, November 2012).
- Çakırlar, C. “Troubled Objects of Militarism, Masculinity and Nationalism: Art in Turkey”, Understanding Media and Culture in Turkey: Histories, Structures, Voices, edited by Christian Christensen and Miyase Christensen (New York and London: Routledge, December 2012).
- Çakırlar, C. “Ruhuma Asla!: Kutluğ Ataman, Queer Belge/sel ve Küreselleşen Sanat”, Cinsellik Muamması: Türkiye’de Queer Kültür ve Muhalefet, edited by Cüneyt Çakırlar and Serkan Delice (İstanbul: Metis, 2012).
- Çakırlar, C. “Vicdanen, Tersten: Erinç Seymen’in Çileci Sanatı”, Cinsellik Muamması: Türkiye’de Queer Kültür ve Muhalefet, edited by Cüneyt Çakırlar and Serkan Delice (İstanbul: Metis, 2012).
- Çakırlar, C. “Queer Art of Parallaxed Document: The Visual Discourse of Docudrag in Kutluğ Ataman's Never My Soul! (2001)”, LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media, edited by Christopher Pullen (Oxford: Palgrave, 2012), 242-258.
- Çakırlar, C. “Sürçen Söylemler: Lubunya ve Tekinsiz Normativite [Slipping Discourses: Lubunya, Turkish Transgender Sex Workers and the Uncanny Normativity]”, Cinsiyet Halleri: Türkiye'de Toplumsal Cinsiyet Kesişim Sınırları [Issues on Sex: Limits of Gendered Intersectionalities in Turkey], edited by Nil Mutluer (Istanbul: Varlık, 2008), 207-18.
- Çakırlar, C. “Contemporary Queer Film-making in Turkey”, International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture: GLBT Contemporary Cultures, edited by David A. Gerstner (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), 577-9.
- Çakırlar, C. “Cultures of Death: The Art of Jake and Dinos Chapman”, KÜLT: A Journal of Cultural Studies 1:4, 2012.
- Çakırlar, C. “Queer Art of Parallaxed Document: The Visual Discourse of Docudrag in Kutluğ Ataman's Never My Soul! (2001)”, Screen52/3, Autumn 2011, 358-75.
- Çakırlar, C. “Cinephilic Bodies: Todd Haynes's Cinema of Queer Pastiche”, KÜLT: A Journal of Cultural Studies 1:1, 2011, 162-199.
- Çakırlar, C. “Masculinity, Scatology, Mooning and the Queer/able Art of Gilbert and George: On the Visual Discourse of Male Ejaculation and Anal Penetration”, Paragraph: A Journal of Modern Critical Theory 34:1, March 2011, 86-104.
Translations
- Butler, J. Belâ Bedenler: “Cinsiyet”in Söylemsel Sınırları Üzerine [Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'”], co-translator: Berfu Şeker (Istanbul: Pinhan, 2012).
- Butler, J. “Kritik Queer [“Chapter 8: Critically Queer” in Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”],” Toplumbilim, 2012.
- Butler, J. “Maddeleşen/Sorunlaşan Bedenler: Belâ Bedenler [Chapter 1: Bodies That Matter of Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”],” Cogito 65-66, 2011, 52-86.