Zafer Senoçak

Born in Ankara in 1961, Zafer Senocak has been living in Germany since 1970, where he has become a leading voice in the German discussions on multiculturalism, national and cultural identity, and a mediator between Turkish and German culture.

The widely published poet, essayist, journalist, and editor has won several prestigious literary awards in Germany. His works have been translated into Turkish, English, French, Dutch, and Hebrew. In 1996, Senocak was writer in residence at Miami University, Ohio, and at the Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades.

Currently, he is Max Kade Distinguished Visitor and writer in residence at the Foreign Languages and Literatures Section at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additional support has been provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bonn, Germany.

Event: Literature Reading, 6/3/2005

Lafayette Alumnus Briana Niblick on Zafer Senoçak

Niblick’s scholarship will last from September 2007 to June 2008. She will be taking courses in environmental engineering at BOKU, the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna. She also will be conducting research on the sustainable design and management of small-scale water supply systems in developing countries and teaching English in an Austrian secondary school.

Niblick worked with Lamb-Faffelberger on EXCEL reseach exploring the cultural identity of East Germans residing in an area known as Euroregion Neisse. Also with Lamb-Faffelberger, she performed independent study research on three influential East German writers and an honors thesis entitled Zafer Senocak_ Questions of Identity in German_Turkish Literature

Niblick received the Outstanding Senior Award for foreign languages and literatures and the Leroy Nunery ’77 Intellectual Citizenship Award. She presented research “Feminist Spoken Word: Tales of Gender and Justice” at the 12th annual Undergraduate Conference in Women’s Studies hosted by Cedar Crest College and her honor thesis at the 20th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research.