Şebnem Altunkaya

Leverhulme PhD Researcher

Email: Sebnem.Altunkaya@hud.ac.u

Şebnem Altunkaya is a Postgraduate Researcher in the Department of Music at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Şebnem’s research examines the transformation of Anatolian folk music through amplification technologies and explores the political and cultural implications of electrified sound in Turkey from the 1960s to the present. She has taught undergraduate seminars on the anthropology of music and on music and social change at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany and the University of Göttingen, Germany. Her work critically engages questions of identity, resistance, and cultural memory, using ethnographic methods, archival research, and oral histories. In addition to her academic work, she served as an academic advisor and production coordinator for the documentary Ceux qui Disent la Vérité (Those Who Speak the Truth), which highlights the intersections of music, censorship, and political resistance in Turkey. Her research situates musical amplification as both a sonic and social phenomenon, bridging studies of folk tradition, sound technology, and political expression.