Dr Burcu Simsek

Ias Spotlight Series: Design Leadership Summit: Applied Storytelling

Department of Communication Sciences, Hacettepe University, Turkey

Burcu 艦im艧ek is an associate professor at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Communication Sciences, Ankara, Turkey. She is the founder and the coordinator of the Digital Storytelling Unit at Hacettepe University and has facilitated over 80 digital storytelling workshops in Turkey and abroad with various groups on diverse themes since 2009.

She completed her PhD with a thesis on digital storytelling and feminist activism in Turkey at Creative Industries Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, in Australia, in 2012, under the supervision of John Hartley and Jean Burgess. She has a M.Sc. degree in Women鈥檚 Studies, Ankara University and B.A. degree in English Language and Literature, Hacettepe University. She was the convenor of 鈥淭he 5th International Digital Storytelling Conference: Create, Act, Change鈥� at Hacettepe University in 2013.

She started her career as a journalist in 1998. Since then she has been involved with stories and storytelling. She is interested in digital storytelling, women studies, oral history, migration and health communication. Recently, she focuses on migration and food cultures, running DST workshops with women from migrant and host community in Ankara for social cohesion.