Ceyda Çekmeci is a PhD candidate in Musicology, whose research lies at the intersection of music studies and sociology. Her dissertation focuses on music, hegemony, and the aesthetics of authoritarian neoliberalism in contemporary Turkey. More broadly, Ceyda’s research interests include music in authoritarian contexts and the political efficacy of art in rising illiberal democracies. Her doctoral work has been supported by the Berkeley Fellowship.
Prior to her PhD at UC Berkeley, Ceyda worked as a choir conductor in various public and private institutions in Istanbul, most notably at the Music for Peace Foundation (El Sistema Turkey), which formed the basis of her master’s thesis entitled Music as Mediating the Self and the Social: An Ethnographic Field Study at the Music for Peace Foundation, El Sistema Turkey.
B.A., Sociology, Boğaziçi University (2016, High Honors Degree)
M.A., Musicology, Istanbul Technical University Center for Advanced Studies in Music (2019)
