Vuslat D. Katsanis is a scholar of comparative literature, film, and visual culture with a focus on Turkish and global migrant cultural productions and critical theory since 1989. Currently a professor in the Literary Arts and Studies path of study at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, Katsanis is also the cofounder of MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture (MPAC), an independently-run curatorial project and research space in Zurich, Switzerland. She has published essays on the films of Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Fatih Akin, translated a number of short fiction and poetry between Turkish and English, coedited a volume on teaching writing, and together with MPAC, curated several contemporary multimedia art exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California with upcoming programming in Switzerland and Türkiye. Katsanis holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine, with a certificate of emphasis in Critical Theory and a M.A. in Visual Studies.
In this panel, Katsanis will join artist and MPAC cofounder Ilknur Demirkoparan in conversation with Suriname-based filmmaker, Keoni K. Wright, and the American painter, Charles Edward Williams, with whom she is co-curating Play, a multimedia contemporary art exhibition opening on June 9, 2023, in Zurich. The panelists will discuss their individual art practices as well as their collective outlook toward the future through a shared interest in worldmaking and joy. The “play” theme is inspired by the historical role of artist-run initiatives for refugee artists during the first two world wars, and specifically, the playhouse that the Dadaists established in Zurich to sustain hope amidst a fury of political and social upheavals.
