FI Graduate Fellow, Assistant Director
Cihan Tekay earned her BA from Hampshire College and she is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the Graduate Center.
Cihan is interested in the global emergence of novel forms of citizenship, and how people’s engagement with science, technology, and popular political ideologies shape visions of the future. As an interdisciplinary scholar trained in history, sociology and anthropology, her research reevaluates the relationship of people and politics to technology and natural resources by employing archival and ethnographic methods. She is currently writing her dissertation on European finance and the political economy of Turkey’s electrification during the early 20th century. Her project has been supported by Social Science Research Council’s International Dissertation Research Fellowship as well as the Doctoral Student Research Grant and Provost’s Award programs at the Graduate Center.
Cihan has taught courses in Anthropology, Sociology and Gender Studies in the CUNY system since 2012. She also worked as a Graduate Fellow at Medgar Evers College, where she assisted students and faculty in developing tools for writing, researching, and publishing their projects. She currently serves as FI’s Assistant Director, where she works with Co-Director Katina Rogers to oversee various aspects of our programming in student-centered pedagogy. She is also organizing the Graduate Education at Work in the World conference, which has been postponed to Spring 2021.
Cihan is committed to public scholarship, academic freedom, and imagining fair and equitable futures for the public university. She has been a co-editor of the Turkey section on Jadaliyya.com since 2013.
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