Defne

Born and raised in Istanbul, Defne is a native Turkish speaker who has made a habit of collecting languages. After a BA in Linguistics at Boğaziçi University and a Master’s in Linguistics at Lund University in Sweden, she continues to explore how language shifts over time and how it shapes gender, identity, and culture.

She works as a translator and in language education through a small company she co-founded with her first Swedish teacher, and she volunteers at a queer bookstore in the city where she lives. A lover of media and pop-culture analysis, she also writes poetry, enjoys literature and music in all their many forms.

Defne speaks English, Swedish, a bit of German, proudly claims she can “survive” in Spanish, and is currently learning French. She brings a linguist’s curiosity and a love of connecting people and ideas to everything she does.