Love and Literature

10) Love is not an emotion, with Professor Chouraqui

In today's episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Professor Chouraqui. Frank Chouraqui is a lecturer at the Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University. His research has a historical side and a systematic side. The historical aspect is focused on the philosophies of Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty, especially their ontologies of relationality and their connections with ontological accounts of power. The systematic aspect focuses on the analysis of belief and its relation to action, especially in the case of fanatic and dogmatic belief. This episode will explore what love entails, which is not an emotion. Regarding this topic, more examples and explanations will be provided in this episode. Thank you, Professor Chouraqui, and thank you all for listening.

9) Nationalism a form of love? with Professor Suan

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Stevie Suan. Stevie Suan is an Associate Professor at Hosei University in the Faculty of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies. He holds a doctorate in Manga Studies from the Graduate School of Manga Studies at Kyoto Seika University, received his M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa, and his B.A. in Cinema and Cultural Studies from Stony Brook University. Born in Sri Lanka, but raised primarily in New York City, he has spent considerable time living in Japan, as well as extended stays in Taiwan and Indonesia, where he has studied and researched a variety of topics relating to the arts and media, ranging from traditional theatrical performance to contemporary animation. In this episode, he will be discussing what it entails to belong to a nation. What is a nation-state? What is nationalism? Can nationalism be considered a form of love? And many more questions will be explored in this episode.

8) Love is plural, with Professor Ortega

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Professor Ortega about what love entails. Professor Ortega is a scholar in Language Education & Applied Linguistics. He bridges theories and practice, teaching future educators how to implement inclusive, culturally responsive, and pluriversal pedagogies. His research is collaborative and embodied, employing ethnographic, participatory, and arts-based methods to explore how communities express cultural and linguistic identities. In this episode, the notion of love got deconstructed. Perhaps trying to find one distinct definition of love is also a form of oppression. It is an oppression of other "diminished" or unheard narratives. Thanks to Professor Ortega, this notion became more apparent. Thank you, Professor Ortega, and thank you all for listening!

7) Obsession or love? With Julide Sezer

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca talks with Julide Sezer about Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence. This book has recently also been turned into a series. Julide Eda Sezer is an independent researcher who is interested in critical posthumanism, new materialism, decolonization, and postcolonialism, and explores the complex and intertwined relationships between human and more-than-human worlds. Her thesis, Sustaining Resistance, Cultivating Liberation: The Enduring Bond of Rooted-Resistance-Companionship between Palestinians and Olive Trees, which received the Hélène Phoa Gender Studies Research Thesis Prize in 2023, embodies these concerns. Beyond research, Sezer has extensive experience in project and conference management, and in facilitating interdisciplinary reading groups and collaborative initiatives that bring together feminist, ecological, and decolonial perspectives. These spaces foster intellectual companionship, critical reflection, and the cultivation of knowledge in relation rather than separation. One of these spaces includes her YouTube channel, on which she provides an intellectual and insightful platform to explore various themes. The name of the channel is Julide'nin oyun odasi. Thank you, Julide Sezer, and thank you for listening.

6) Love in the classroom, with Maider Muñoz Bujedo

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca talks to the multilingual educator Maider Muñoz Bujedo. Maider Muñoz Bujedo is an experienced educator with a background in Translation and Interpretation (German and English). Her career has taken her across Germany, the United States, India, China, Costa Rica, Chile, and Spain, teaching in various classroom settings. Currently, she is serving as a Bilingual Specialist at a Waldorf school. The philosophy of the Waldorf schools and its workings are being explored in this episode. Thank you all for listening, and thank you, Maider Muñoz Bujedo.