Fatma Edemen from the JU Doctoral School in the Humanities won the award for the best international PhD student in Poland within the framework of the 13th INTERSTUDENT contest. The winners of the competition were announced on 9 February at the conference International Students in Poland, hosted by the Medical University of Białystok.
The INTERSTUDENT contest is organised by the ‘Perspektywy’ Education Foundation and the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland within the framework of the “Study in Poland” programme. The award chapter, headed by Prof. Jerzy Lis from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków selects laureates from among foreigners studying at both public and private Polish institutions of higher education, as undergraduate, graduate or doctoral students. The contestants have to be active members of their local student community taking part in cultural, social, environmental, or sports initiatives, have good grades, and/or participate in interesting research projects.
Fatma Edemen came to Poland five years ago. Her research focuses on Kurdish film. Her PhD project, entitled Curating Kurdishness: Kurdish Film Festivals in Europe is carried out under the supervision of Prof. Małgorzata Radkiewicz. Her passion and commitment to her academic work is reflected in the participation in numerous film festivals and extensive archive research, aimed at gathering new research data and widening her already broad horizons. Fatma was part of the jury of the Women Make Waves International Festival in Taiwan and selection committees in the Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival in Turkey in 2019 and 2020. She has published numerous articles in prestigious academic journals and has taken part in a number of specialist conferences.
Before enrolling at the Jagiellonian University Fatma Edemen studied journalism in Ankara, where she also worked as a journalist. In 2018 she learnt about the programme Cultural Studies: Comparative Heritage Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a city which she earlier visited as an Erasmus student. She obtained her MA degree in 2020, based on a thesis on independent Turkish cinema.
After completing her PhD studies, Fatma would like to work in the film industry or at the University. Either way, she would like to apply her knowledge and academic experience during her future career.
Besides her research, the INTERSTUDENT laureate is also actively involved in artistic, social and organisational activities. As a member of the Council of Doctoral Students at the JU Doctoral School in the Humanities, she has co-organised a number of university events. As part of the JU Excellence Initiative, she assists other doctoral students in completing applications and requests and helps PhD students from outside Poland to solve the problems they usually face.
More information about the contest is available on its website.
