The “Lives in Turkish” database, developed by Dr. Ceyda Elgül, Lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at Boğaziçi University, has been awarded the “Early Career Researcher Honor Award” within the scope of the 2022 Open Scholarship Awards presented by the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute (C-SKI), one of the most respected institutions in its field.

“Lives in Turkish” provides an open-access reference bibliography of biographical works published in Turkish from the 1800s to the present, while also sharing this data in a more accessible form through data visualization methods. Speaking to the Office of Corporate Communications, Dr. Elgül stated that they now have a comprehensive and up-to-date database, adding, “We are very happy that our intensive work, which began in 2019, has been recognized in this way.”

Led by Dr. Ceyda Elgül, the project team includes Research Assistant Fatih Aşan and researcher Eyüp Tugay Bahar, along with student assistants Belemir Topçuoğlu, Aynur Erzenoğlu, Doğa Sindar, and Ladin Toplu. The project, titled “Biography in Turkish Translation from the Late Ottoman Period to the Present,” has created an extensive database illustrating the evolution of the biographical genre in Turkish by utilizing methods such as big data analysis. The continuously updated database was most recently honored by the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute with the “Early Career Researcher Honor Award” in the 2022 Open Scholarship Awards. These awards recognize projects that promote the accessibility of academic research through open access, open data, and open education initiatives both within and beyond academia.

“We Will Continue Our Work with This Motivation”

Expressing her happiness that the project has gained international recognition, Dr. Ceyda Elgül said:
“We began our biography project within the framework of Digital Humanities in 2019. We included not only sources written in Latin script but also those in Arabic, Greek, and Armenian alphabets. It makes us very happy that our work has attracted attention and appreciation internationally. We will continue our efforts with this motivation to further develop our bibliography.”

Detailed Search Options

The “Lives in Turkish” database includes reference information on both original and translated biographical works published in Turkish from the 19th century to the present. In addition to bibliographic data, the database provides metadata such as book covers, summaries, tables of contents, types of biographical narratives, promotional texts, retranslations, and subsequent editions. Users can filter entries by various parameters such as publication year, collection, original language, type of biographical narrative, the geographical region and period in which the biographical subject lived, and their field of activity.

Who is Dr. Ceyda Elgül?

Dr. Ceyda Elgül completed her undergraduate studies in Comparative Literature at Istanbul Bilgi University in 2008 and continued her graduate studies in translation history at Boğaziçi University. In 2014–2015, she received a Fulbright Visiting Researcher Grant and conducted academic research at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts in the United States. She completed her Ph.D. in Translation Studies at Boğaziçi University in 2016. Dr. Elgül currently teaches courses such as Literary Translation, Introduction to Translation, and Translation Theories at Boğaziçi University.