“The physics courses at RC with a lot of experiments certainly inspired me as an artist.”
GRADS IN THE NEWS
Jale Parla was recognized for her success in bridging academia and literature, her original analysis of Turkish literature and her contribution to literature in education as a literary critic through the 2020 Erdal Öz Literature Award.
Jale Parla ACG 64
After graduating from ACG, Parla studied comparative literature at Robert College. Subsequently, she did her PhD in comparative literature at Harvard University. She is currently a professor of comparative literature at Bilgi University.
The Erdal Öz Award was established by his family in 2008 to commemorate Erdal Öz’s legacy. Although Parla did not know Erdal Öz personally, she was well aware of his significant place in Turkey’s intellectual life as a poet, writer, publisher, social activist and a pioneer in various cultural enterprises. Parla says, “Besides the honor of receiving an award that bears the name of such a person, I am also heartened by the fact that the jury that gave this award recognized the contribution of someone from the field of literary criticism, a field that certainly needs all the institutional encouragement that it can possibly get.”
When asked about the influence ACG and RC had in shaping her career, Parla states,
“The humanities formation provided by a wide range of course electives in literary, historical, sociological, and philosophical subjects in the curricula of ACG and RC inspired me with pursuing my studies in the discipline of comparative literature.”
Published February 2021
