Sümeyra Güneş

Matriculated September 2020

Research Interests

humor; offense; identity; representation; Turkey 

About

Sümeyra’s research focuses on the entitlement that makes an identity joke possible; the punitive/legal, social, and professional consequences of these jokes; and the boundary-crossing/boundary-making practices of stand-up comedy in Istanbul. She is interested in the role jokes and humorous stories play in performing identities, with a primary focus on jokes targeting religion, culture, ethnicity, and sexuality. In relation to that, she aims to measure resentment and analyze how the lines of acceptable representation as well as offense are drawn and negotiated between Istanbul’s comedians and their audience. Although her research is based in Turkey, it has broader theoretical relevance to the ways we think about the workings of humor and offense in politically fraught contexts.  

Sümeyra holds a B.A. in Literature from Boğaziçi University and M.A. in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University. She began her Ph.D. in Sociology at Koç University, then received the Fulbright Scholarship in order to pursue her academic goals in Anthropology at Boston University. 

Awards & Grants

• Wenner-Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant. $22,590. (awarded Spring 2023) 
• BU Women’s Council Scholarship. $5000. (2023) 
• Long-term Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship (GRAF). $16,250. (awarded Spring 2023). 
• GSO Research Grant. $900. (Spring 2023).
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. $3500. (2022). 
• American Ethnological Society (AES) Small Grant for ethnographic research. $2500 (2021). 
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. $1370 (2021) 
• Fulbright Scholarship. $21.990. (AY2021-2022). 
• Fulbright Scholarship. $21.990. (AY2020-2021).  

Publications

• forthcoming

Book Reviews 

• Gunes, Sumeyra. “Saraybosna Havasi: Bir Gundelik Hayat Etnografisi.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 9, no. 1 (2022): 343.