E. Şirin Özgün born in 1977, graduated from Galatasaray High School where her interest on traditional dances and musics started at age 16. She studied sociology in Boğaziçi University and she started performing traditional musics in Boğaziçi University Folklore Club (BUFK) as a percussionist. After graduation, she decided to combine her interest in traditional dances and musics with her education in sociology and she completed her masters and Phd education in ethnomusicology from the Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM), Istanbul Technical University (ITU). Her master thesis “Drummer Women of Anatolia”, was based on fieldwork and historical research regarding the musical and ritual practices of women playing frame drums in Central Anatolia. Her PhD thesis “The Sounds of Political Actions in the Streets of Istanbul”, was based on intensive fieldwork spread over three years listening to, recording and interpreting the sounds of protests in Istanbul. She taught music courses in several universities from 2007 to 2010, and she worked as a research assistant in MIAM from 2010 to 2012. She taught in ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory Musicology Department between 2012 and 2015. In 2014 she earned associate professor title and became vice director to MIAM. Since then she teaches ethnomusicology in MIAM. Her areas of specialization include gender studies in music, soundscape ethnomusicology and the impact of politics on musical expression. She’s currently working on a new fieldwork project on Yörük culture. She is mother of two, likes to cross-stitch and crochet, and dreams about long days to spend looking at Ida Mountains and drinking coffee.
