Yasemin Nurcan Hacioglu

I am an Associate Professor and Head of English in the Department of Language and Literature. 

My research focuses on feminist and queer narratives across fiction, education and social movements. The recently published monograph Thinking through Poems: Composition, Emotion and Decision-Making in Romantic-Era Women's Novels explores how poems in popular gothic and romance novels at the turn of the nineteenth century demonstrate methods for re-imagining situations, crafting socially unexpected responses, and experimenting with new decisions, to women readers. Listen to a podcast episode (in English), read a summary of the research here (in Norwegian), or browse this interview on its relevance to feminist fiction now (in English). 

Before arriving in Volda in 2023, I worked at three Norwegian universities (UiO, NTNU, UiS) following my PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Oslo (Autumn 2021), having also studied in Edinburgh and Oxford and worked at a rural secondary school in Norfolk. 

Research Projects

I prefer to work collaboratively. I am co-organising a research project with Gudrun Juuhl, on narrative and rhetorical "scaffoldings" of social transformation—through building and analysing the archive of Volda's first Pride: "Bygdepride: Transformative Rhetorics". Together we have established a network researching Nordic rural Prides. Please be in touch if you are interested to join. 

I am also working with Natalie Donohue on a research and teaching project to promote reading fiction in schools with teacher training students. 

I organised a symposium, "Thinking with Art: Emotion, Memory, and the Body" (Autumn 2023; read about it here). For students and academics, I organised an event on graphic novels featuring talks from both the artists of graphic novels and academics, "Human Rights, Trauma, Art and Recovery in the Graphic Novel" (Spring 2024; read about it here). 

Research Affiliations 

• Leader (2023-26) Volda MEDVITSFORUM / Cognition and Consciousness Research Group.
• Associate researcher with the Literature, Cognition and Emotions research group at the University of Oslo. 

• Senter for kvinne- og kjønnsforskning (SKOK) Reading Group, University of Bergen. 

• Multisensory reading (SENSE-READ) at the University of Stavanger.
• Literary and Cultural Eighteenth-Century Studies (LACES) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
• Discourses of Gender and Sexuality (DoGS) at HVL.
• Research Group for Literature at Volda University College.