Ali Sengul

Ali holds a PhD from the Radio-Television-Film department at the University of Texas-Austin and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey. From 2013 to 2015, Ali served as the founding chair of the Cinema-Television department and the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mardin Artuklu University in Turkey. Ali’s research focuses on the intersection of the aesthetics of national identity, cultural modernity and politics of differences in the Middle East. He is currently writing his manuscript Cinematic Modernity and its Discontents: Aesthetics, National Identity and Cultural Difference in Turkey. In addition to his scholarly work, Ali is the curator and editor of the video storytelling project Çirokên Kurdi (Kurdish Stories) and a frequent contributor to the New York Kurdish Film Festival.