Damla Yeşil, born in Antalya, Turkey, completed her bachelor and master studies in Istanbul, respectively at Bogazici University and Istanbul Bilgi University. She holds a bachelor degree in Economics, and a master degree in Comparative Literature. During her master studies, she spent two semesters at the University of Cologne within the context of Erasmus+ Programme. She completed her master studies in 2017 with a master dissertation titled Poetry In The Street: On OWS (Occupy Wall Street) Poetry and The Verses of Turgut Uyar. Same year, on one of the most prestigious monthly journals of Turkey on culture and politics, Birikim, she published an article discussing the Turkish avant-garde poetry within the context of Gezi Park uprising. She also worked voluntarily as a translator for an Istanbul based book project held in 2013, and dedicated to the people of Gezi. The novel Ways of Dying by the leading South-African author Zakes Mda is published in Turkish in 2018 with her translation.

From the July, 2017 to the March, 2018, she was provided with a project scholarship by the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School (FSGS) at the Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. studies at the FSGS in the department of General and Comparative Literature. In her Ph.D. project titled Poetry As An Expression of Resistance: ,,La Poésie dans la Rue” from the ’68 Movements to Contemporary Uprisings, she analyses the poems utilised by protestors as an integral part of protest during the ’68 movements, and recent uprisings which occurred in Turkey, Germany, France, and the USA. The goal of the project is to develop an understanding of the interaction between poetry as an art genre and protest as a social and political phenomenon, drawing on the case studies. In addition, the project questions the changing concept of the “political” within the art of poetry from the 1960s to present. It does this by revealing the feelings, emotions and ideas which are associated with revolutionary or dissident identities in the poems utilised during the acts of protest.  

Having been found eligible for a research scholarship provided by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), she continues her research as a DAAD scholarship holder since October, 2018.   

This project focuses on the poems utilised by protestors as an integral part of protest during the ’68 movements, and recent uprisings which occurred in Turkey, Germany, France, and the USA. The goal of the project is to develop an understanding of the interaction between poetry as an art genre and protest as a social and political phenomenon, drawing on the case studies. In addition, the project questions the changing concept of the “political” within the art of poetry from the 1960s to present. It does this by revealing the feelings, emotions and ideas which are associated with revolutionary or dissident identities in the poems utilised during the acts of protest. 

“Bir Süreğen Haziran: Haziran’da Bir Gezi, Gezi’de Bir Şair” (A Ceaseless June: On Gezi Park Protests and the Poetry of Turgut Uyar Standing for Gezi). Birikim: Monthly Journal of Socialist Culture 338 (June 2017): 72-80. http://www.birikimdergisi.com/kisi/7675/damla-yesil#.WgQ3ChTyqqQ 

Mda, Zakes. Ways of Dying (Adınla Başlar Hayat). İstanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing House, 2018. 

https://www.ayrintiyayinlari.com.tr/kitap/adinla-baslar-hayat/1277

İnal, Kemal, ed. Gezi, İsyan, Özgürlük: Sokağın Şenlikli Muhalefeti (Gezi, Rebellion, Freedom: The Joyous Opposition in The Street). İstanbul: Ayrıntı Publishing House, 2013.

—. Hill, Dave. “Gezi: Reflections and Reactions” (Gezi Üzerine Düşünceler ve Uyandırdığı Tepkiler). İnal 338-47.

—. McLaren, Peter. “Turkey at the Crossroads” (Dönüm Noktasında Türkiye). İnal 311-27.

—. Skordoulis, Kostas. “After the Taksim Revolt: A Balance Sheet” (Taksim Ayaklanmasının Ardından: Bilanço). İnal 327-38.

—. Sotiris, Panagiotis. “The New ‘Age of Insurrections’ And The Challenges For the Left: Thoughts on The Aftermath Of The Turkish Revolt” (Yeni ‘Başkaldırılar Çağı’ ve Sol’a Düşen Zorlu Görevler: Türk İsyanının Sonrası Üzerine Düşünceler). İnal 351-361.

https://www.ayrintiyayinlari.com.tr/kitap/gezi-isyan-ozgurluk/712 

“From Melancholy to Action: The Influence of Turgut Uyar’s Poetry on the Gezi Uprising”. (Presentation of paper at the internatonal conference Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia. Gdańsk, Poland, 3-4 December 2018.

“On The Shore of ‘68: Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Gezi, Occupy Poetry!”. (Presentation of paper at the international conference Literature and the Arts since the 1960s: Protest, Identity and the Imagination. University of Porto, 15-17 November 2018. 

The FSGS Summer School 2019 The Politics of Literature – Literature and Politics. Freie Universität Berlin, 1-4 July, 2019. (co-organisation)

"Poetry on the Barricades: 'When The Beating of your Heart echoes the Beating of the Rhyme'". Panel discussion within the context of the FSGS Summer School 2019. Freie Universität Berlin, 4th of July, 2019 (concept creation, organisation and moderation of the event).  

"Literature! And the Political? A Dialogue between Readers, Writers, Publishers and Academics". Public discussion within the context of the FSGS Summer School 2019. Lettrétage Berlin, 3rd of July, 2019 (co-creation of the concept and co-organisation).