She received her MA in Central Eurasian Studies (Turkish Studies) from Indiana University and her PhD in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Michigan. Her research and teaching interests include 20th and 21st Century German literature and music, minority studies, cultural studies, transnationalism, exile studies, and cultural geography. Currently she is investigating the intercultural exchange between Marxist intellectuals Bertolt Brecht and Nazım Hikmet and their significance—specifically their conceptualization of socialist realism as well as of art as a political tool—for Turkish-German cultural production.