Seda Saluk earned her MA in Gender Studies from Central European University in 2009 and her BA in Psychology in Bogazici University in 2008. She is currently pursuing her PhD as a Fulbright Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her Graduate Certificate in Advanced Feminist Studies from the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the same university. Her research interests include political and medical anthropology; ethnography of the state and healthcare; reproductive governance; feminist studies of science, technology, and medicine; nationalism; and late capitalism. Her dissertation project focuses on the politicization of reproduction in contemporary Turkey in the midst of pronatalist state policies and neoliberal healthcare reforms. She examines how women experience and negotiate this process along the axes of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity as they provide or receive reproductive healthcare. Seda has been active in various feminist initiatives in Turkey, and is currently a member of Feminist Kadın Çevresi [Feminist Women’s Circle] and working for the open-access, peer-reviewed journal Kültür ve Siyasette Feminist Yaklaşımlar [Feminist Approaches in Culture and Politics]. After completing her PhD, she is planning to continue research and teaching in higher education as well working within publishing initiatives and cooperatives.
"The Department of Gender Studies at CEU and the year I spent in Budapest have an invaluable place in my life. I took courses from a broad range of possibilities, attended master classes with many well-known feminist scholars, and worked closely with faculty members and fellow students. The challenging but rewarding process of intensive coursework and thesis writing provided me with necessary theoretical and methodological skills to continue my graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts. More than these, however, the politically engaged, critical, and cooperative learning environment of the department with its diverse faculty and student body enriched and empowered me in many ways. It has helped me to define my intellectual interests, find my own voice as a young scholar, view academy with a fresh and different perspective, and gain valuable friendships that last long after the graduation. For these reasons, I am greatly indebted to the department and to the many people with whom I met in Budapest."