Ayşe Erarslan
Director
ayse.erarslan@goethe.de
Ayşe is an anthropologist, a civil society professional and a social entrepreneur. She engages with local, national and international stakeholders for the promotion of dialogue and participation, and for policy building and implementation. She develops collaborations and leads joint projects to strengthen culture and arts activities from a community and human rights-based perspective.
With an experience of over 10 years of involvement as a participant, expert and manager in civil society projects in Turkey, Ayşe believes producing and sharing arts and culture will have a curative and transformative power on both those who need it most and the whole community in Turkey. To this end, she works as the director of CultureCIVIC at Goethe-Institut Istanbul.
Ece Koçak
Grant Coordinator
ece.kocak@goethe.de
Ece studied Comparative Literature at Koç University and later earned a graduate degree in Cultural Studies from Sabancı University. After gaining experience in various roles as a journalist, editor, and translator, she shifted her focus to civil society. From 2019 to 2021, Ece worked as the Projects and Communications Coordinator at Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA), where she advocated for freedom of expression, the right to information, digital freedoms, and the rule of law at both local and international levels. Notably, she coordinated an EU-funded trial monitoring project that documented violations of the right to a fair trial in freedom of expression cases across Turkey. Between August 2021 and November 2024, she worked as the Communications Coordinator at Hafıza Merkezi, focusing on combating impunity, addressing Turkey’s violent past, supporting memorialization efforts, and promoting youth engagement. In 2024, she played a key role in the impact campaign and dissemination of the documentary Dargeçit (2024, dir. Berke Baş), produced by Hafıza Merkezi.
Academically, Ece’s interests lie in trauma studies, the literary representation of political violence, philosophy of law, Armenian literature, and postcolonial literature. Since 2020, she has been learning Western Armenian and continues her studies in this field in her spare time.
Eda Hisarlıoğlu
Grant Coordinator
eda.hisarlioglu@goethe.de
Eda studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University and completed the Curating Contemporary Art program at Açık Diyalog in Akbank Sanat. Since 2016, she has collaborated with various institutions and artists as a researcher, exhibition producer, and designer in the contemporary art field. Since 2019, she has been a member of the editorial team of the Amsterdam-based Failed Architecture platform. Focusing on cultural policies and Istanbul's cultural infrastructure, Eda has contributed to several working groups and events at Depo and Kırık. From 2023 to 2025, she worked as a project coordinator for Spaces of Culture at Goethe-Institut Istanbul, coordinating international mobility programs and grant processes. She continues her academic studies at Kadir Has University's Architecture and Urban Studies Program and is writing her master's thesis.
Elçin Dayanır
Grant Coordinator
elcin.dayanir@goethe.de
Elçin earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in sociology from Galatasaray University. Her academic studies focused on masculinities and urban sociology; she researched the power of culture and art to reproduce and transform social dynamics in her theses titled "Representations of Loser Men in Turkish Cinema ‘and ’Gentrification through Art: The Case of Dolapdere.”
In addition to her academic studies, she has become an expert through her volunteer and professional work in human rights organizations. At the Hrant Dink Foundation, she contributed to the opening of spaces for dialogue by working on projects against discriminatory discourse. As a project coordinator at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, between 2021 and 2025, she took part in national and international efforts to repair individual and social traumas caused by gross and serious human rights violations, to ensure accountability and to prevent human rights violations.
Gaye Önen
Capacity Building and Network Coordinator
gaye.onen@goethe.de
Gaye Önen studied Political Science and Public Administration in French language at Marmara University and completed her master's degrees in Comparative Legal Theory at EHESS in Paris and in European Union Studies at Paris 8 University. She obtained her third master's degree in European Union Neighbourhood Policy at the College of Europe in Warsaw Campus.
Between 2021 and 2025, she worked as a Grant Assistant and later as a Grant Consultant at a Brussels-based organization that provides financial support to rights-based initiatives and projects. During this period, she reviewed reports from projects that contributed to strengthening Turkey's cultural landscape by supporting cultural dialogue, freedom of expression, and democratic processes. She also contributed to the development of the financial capacities of rights-based culture and arts initiatives in Türkiye. While continuing her consultancy role, she returned to Turkey in 2022 and worked as a Grants Officer at a health-focused humanitarian aid organization.
With a focus on EU-Turkey migration management in her academic work, Önen has been actively involved in civil society initiatives in Paris, Istanbul, and Brussels, particularly in efforts to foster connections between migrant and local communities, reduce rights violations against migrants and refugees, and enhance social cohesion.
Lena Alpozan
Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator
lena.alpozan@goethe.de
Lena Alpozan is an experienced cultural manager with extensive expertise in program curation, arts administration, and international cultural exchange. Since March 2023, she was as the Artistic Director of the Tarabya Cultural Academy, where she oversaw the residency program, managed budgets, and fostered strategic collaborations with key stakeholders, including the German Embassy. She has a strong background in monitoring and evaluation, ensuring that projects meet their objectives through systematic progress tracking and outcome reporting.
From 2017 to 2022, Lena worked at the Goethe-Institut und the Cultural Academy as a program coordinator, with a focus on communication of cultural projects, alumni engagement, and interdisciplinary programming. Prior to that, as Quality Manager at telc GmbH, she led a team in implementing robust quality control measures for examinations and played a key role in restructuring the organization’s quality management department.
Lena holds a Master’s degree in German Studies, Art History, and Turkish Studies and is fluent in German, English, and Turkish. She is highly skilled in fostering international collaborations and building sustainable cultural networks.
Leyla Gümüş
Finance Coordinator
leyla.gumus@goethe.de
After completing her studies in Asian and Cultural Sciences at the University of Bonn (Rheinische Friedrich-Wihelms-Universität) in Germany in 2017, Leyla came to Istanbul as an Erasmus+ student to study at Istanbul Bilgi University. At her first job as an administrative intern at the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn, she took an active part in the organization of UNEVOC TVET Learning Forum and TVET Leadership Program in 2018. Between 2018 and 2020, she joined Germany’s leading volunteering organization, the Senior Expert Service (SES), Foundation of German Industry for International Cooperation, for their grant programmes in Mongolia. Meanwhile, she pursued a postgraduate degree for teaching German as a foreign language at the University of Bonn, and studied project management at the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Cologne. Leyla is interested in classical music, especially in concerts that take place in Beethoven’s hometown of Bonn. She loves traveling and discovering different cuisines of the world.
Üstüngel İnanç
Communications Coordinator
uestungel.inanc@goethe.de
Üstüngel studied Dramaturgy and Critical Drama at Istanbul University. Between 1995 and 2010, he worked at the Theatre Festival, Istanbul Biennial and Media Relations departments at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). In 1998 and 1999, he was involved in international exhibitions such as Mediterranea - Tradition and Contemporary in Ceramics, Propositions and İskorpit [Scorpionfish]. From 2007 to 2009, he was both the project coordinator for the Turkish Pavilion at Venice Biennale and the leader for IKSV’s international projects. From 2010 to 2015, Üstüngel was the press and public relations officer at Rampa, and for the next five years, he worked as the media and marketing coordinator at Arter.
He took part as an actor and crew member in the following theatre productions: Curtainman (AÇOK 1992), I Have No Friend (İstanbul Devlet Tiyatrosu 1992), Spring Awakening (Tiyatrokare 1994), Toad Stories (BİLSAK 1999), and Cotton Fields (Bagaj 2001).
Üstüngel is a passionate contemporary art and opera lover. He has a cat named Ajda.