studied architecture and sociology at the Middle East Technical University, before pursuing a PhD in visual and cultural studies at the University of Rochester, where she completed a dissertation entitled “The misuse value of space: Spatial practices and the production of space in Istanbul”. She joined the Institute of European Ethnology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in 2008. Since November 2011, she has led the DFG Emmy Noether Research Project “Changing imaginations of Istanbul: From oriental to the ‘cool’ city”. Her research interests are situated at the intersection of urban studies, cultural studies and migration studies.
From the long tradition of slum tours to the more recent look of the poorgeoisie, the commodification and aestheticization of poverty seems to know no bounds. Derya Özkan reflects on when contemporary culture begins to empty social issues of any social content.
