Overview
Gülşah Şenkol is a historian of the modern Middle East, specializing in women’s and gender history. Her research focuses on the comparative history of feminism, particularly the connections between the Turkish and Egyptian feminist movements that emerged from the Ottoman Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She holds a PhD in History from the Ohio State University and has been a visiting fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the American University in Cairo (AUC), and Princeton University. Prior to joining Koç University, she held postdoctoral and research fellowships at ANAMED, the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, and Orient-Institut Istanbul. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Commission and the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK (AHRC).
At Koç University, she teaches courses on the literature and histories of women, gender, and sexuality in the Middle East. More information about her teaching can be found through the provided links below. Currently, she is working on a book project that examines the interaction between organized women’s movements in Türkiye and Egypt and their relationship with global women’s activism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This project is the result of two years of archival research conducted in Türkiye, Egypt, and the United Kingdom, and aims to establish a dialogue between Turkish and Egyptian feminisms, compare nationalist versus Islamic trends within them, and assess their interactions with and resistance to Western feminisms. Additionally, she is editing a volume on the institutionalization of women’s and gender studies in higher education institutions in Türkiye, which is under contract with Tarih Vakfı Yayınları.
Beyond her teaching and research, she is the founder of “GSSneareast: Network for Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Near East,” a program designed to foster global interaction and cooperation among scholars and institutions engaged in women’s, gender, and sexuality studies across disciplinary lines in Türkiye and the broader Near East.
Research areas
Intellectual and Literary History of the Modern Middle East , Comparative History of Feminism and Feminist Activism , Institutionalization of Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Near East , Comparative LiteratureEducation
PhD, The Ohio State University
Master’s , Bilkent University
Bachelor’s, Hacettepe University
Awards
Genevieve Brown Gist Award in Women's History
The Adıvar Fellowship in Ottoman and Turkish History
Fulbright Scholarship
