Berna Görgülü

About

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I am a PhD candidate and Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellow in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. My research examines critical digital media and political communication, with a focus on digital feminist activism, platform power and visibility, and digital repression in non-Western and authoritarian contexts.

Before beginning doctoral study, I worked in advertising, public relations, graphic design, and feminist movement leadership in Türkiye, including co-founding and serving as the first president of the We Will Stop Femicide Platform Association.

Contact

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You can reach me at:

beg88 [at] pitt.edu

Department of Communication
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

CV

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Fellowships, Grants, and Awards Link to heading

Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship (2026–2027 | $24,392)
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
Graduate Writing Scholars Summer Program (2026 | $1,000)
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
The Most Valuable Professor (2025)
University of Pittsburgh
Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Organization Summer Fellowship (2025 | $500)
University of Pittsburgh
Graduate Expo Best Poster Award (2024–2025 | $500)
University of Pittsburgh

Publications

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Publications Link to heading

Görgülü, B. (Forthcoming). Disinformation and misogyny: Digital repression of the #PınarGültekin movement in Turkey. Feminist Media Studies.
Görgülü, B., & Comeforo, K. (2022). Negotiating the challenge of #ChallengeAccepted: transnational digital flows, networked feminism, and the case of femicide in Turkey. The Review of Communication. doi:10.1080/15358593.2022.2096414
Görgülü, B., & Comeforo, K. (2022). Democratic possibilities of digital feminism: The case of #IstanbulConventionSavesLives and #IstanbulSozlesmesi. In M. Filimowicz (Ed.), Algorithms and society: Digital frontiers. Routledge Focus.

Research

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Dissertation Link to heading

The Effectiveness of Digital Feminist Activism: The #PınarGültekin Movement in Türkiye
Anticipated defense: February 2027

This mixed-methods dissertation examines how digital feminist activism produces political, discursive, and experiential effects under conditions of platform inequality and political repression. Focusing on the #PınarGültekin movement in Türkiye, it combines social network analysis, computational text analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and interviews with campaign participants. The project investigates how platform infrastructures stratify feminist visibility, how structural and postfeminist interpretations circulate through movement discourse, and how affective participation and maintenance labor shape participants’ experiences of collective action. It argues that the effectiveness of digital activism cannot be assessed only through policy outcomes or online visibility, but must also be understood through the unequal production of visibility, the interpretations movements make available, and the lasting consequences of participation.

Teaching

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Teaching Experience Link to heading

University of Pittsburgh Link to heading

Public Speaking — Instructor of Record (Fall 2024; Spring 2025; Spring 2026)
Mass Communication and Society — Instructor of Record (Summer 2025; Fall 2025)
Communication and Society — Instructor of Record (Summer 2024)
Communication and Society — Recitation Instructor (Spring 2024)
Communication and Culture — Recitation Instructor (Fall 2023)

Additional Teaching Experience Link to heading

Graphic Design and Filmmaking — Instructor, Gelişim College, Türkiye (2017–2018)
Theater Instructor (2009–2015)

Berna Görgülü

About

Contact

CV

Fellowships, Grants, and Awards Link to heading

Publications

Publications Link to heading

Research

Dissertation Link to heading

Teaching

Teaching Experience Link to heading

University of Pittsburgh Link to heading

Additional Teaching Experience Link to heading

Teaching Areas Link to heading