Introducing: Beyza Nur Doğan Vatansever

We are pleased to welcome our new Turkish Language and Literature teacher and Turkish Theater Club advisor, Beyza Nur Doğan Vatansever!

With a great passion for reading, writing, and theater, Ms. Doğan joined Robert College in her 5th year of teaching. Studying literature at Boğaziçi University, Ms. Doğan completed her Master's degree in literature and wrote a thesis focusing on the theme of death in theatre. She also has experience as an assistant director and actor at a children's play in the Müjdat Gezen Theater. Watching plays is among her hobbies, and she enjoys connecting them to her lessons, too. Ms. Doğan also loves taking time for herself by going to a place she loves in İstanbul, like Bebek or Kanlıca, to write and think. For now, she is the only reader of her writings–but who knows? Maybe one day we will get to read them, too.

When asked what her first impressions of Robert College were, she replied, "I first visited RC when I was invited for my application. I had already heard that the campus was beautiful; it's quite similar to the Boğaziçi University campus. What captured my interest most was, however, the culture of RC that I told everyone about with pride."

Ms. Doğan says the kindness of the people and their support for each other is something she adores about the culture of this school. "Everyone I meet asks if I need anything, or if I'm getting used to the school. My students are the same way, so it really lives up to my expectations."

The plays produced at our school are always so professional and inspiring that I couldn't help but ask Ms. Doğan about her Turkish Theater Club. "This was the part I was most excited about in my application," she explained. "They were looking for someone with experience in running a club and teaching theatre. This thrilled me because theatre is more like a passion than a job for me, and the idea of it being my full-time job is really important. I don't even feel like I'm working when I'm doing theatre. So I actually came here not only to teach literature but also to lead the Turkish Theater Club."

Of course, one of the fundamental questions to ask a literature teacher is "If your library at home suddenly caught fire, which book would you save first?" Ms. Doğan answered, "It would probably be the novel 'The Disconnected' by Oğuz Atay. It's actually a bit of a personal relationship. The characters that Oğuz Atay talks about are really people that we come across a lot in our lives. There are aspects we discover within ourselves, too. In this novel, the characters Selim Işık and Turgut aren't people who are strangers to us at all. I like the prospect of Selim Işık acting in order to hold on to life. I think I found a part of me inside this book, I actually feel like the more I approach life in a playful way, the more I can relate to life.".

While we're talking about books, we might as well mention her favorite authors. Ms. Doğan describes her favorite authors as people who engage with and address the problem of human existence. Books that address the issue of freedom, of holding on to life, and of somehow existing are always a priority for her, and she derives great personal pleasure from reading them. "If we're talking about writers," she said, "I'd say Nâzım Hikmet. His writings about freedom in other countries and his words for our country are invaluable to me."

Apart from that, when talking about theater, Ms. Doğan likes Henrik Ibsen's work. "He's a founding figure in the history of theater," she added. "He wrote some of the best examples of his genre during his time. He has a problem with norms and ideals, and he was constantly striving to transform them from within. His female characters, in particular, are truly compelling. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, he explores the question of existence in a very beautiful and profound way."

We believe that Beyza Nur Doğan Vatansever will be an inspiration to us in both Turkish Language and Literature and theater, and we wish her a great first year at RC!