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Bilge Merve Aktaş
Bilge is a textile maker, craft researcher, and design educator. She works in the intersection of crafts, sustainability, and nature. She works with local and natural materials, such as wool and plant-based fibers, through practices like felting, weaving, and knitting. Her research explores nonhumans’ role and ways of interacting with them. She holds a PhD in design and has taught at universities in Europe and the USA. She is the founder of yurt collective.
Instagram: bmaktas
Hazal Gümüş Çiftçi
Dr. Hazal Gümüş Çiftçi is an assistant professor of industrial design at the Design School of Arizona State University. Her research revolves around design for sustainability, social innovation, crafts, and circularity. Her recent research agenda focuses on inspiring consumers to repair their belongings by learning basic repair skills and fostering creative thinking.
Instagram: fixerstudio_campus
Çiğdem Nur Turhan
Born on February 7, 1990, in a city in Central Anatolia, Türkiye, she developed an interest in drawing and visual arts from an early age. After graduating from a science high school, she studied Architecture and went on to build 11 years of professional experience in design and field offices.
She holds a Master’s degree in Cinema and Television from Istanbul Bilgi University. During a year-long break from professional life, she dedicated her time to studying academic drawing and oil painting, further developing her interest in visual arts.
She has since returned to professional life and continues to engage with visual arts as an observer, learner, and active participant.
PEOPLE
Emīlija Veselova
“What if we worked with nature, not against it?”
Dr. Emīlija Veselova is a seasoned expert in nature-positive and nature-inclusive approaches. Primarily using the term ‘multispecies’ she works with a wide range of approaches that help humans consider nature. In her doctoral research, Emīlija coined the designing with nature for sustainability approach by building integrative, cross-disciplinary links between design research ands practice, sustainability science, socio-ecological systems, systems thinking, ecology, and environmental ethics. Currently, she runs the Multispecies Digest, a bi-weekly newsletter and podcast with reflections, approaches and questions that help us grow into humans, businesses and societies that value all life.
Website: www.emilijaveselova.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emveselova/
Multispecies Digest: https://multispeciesdigest.substack.com/
Çiğdem at yurt:
