This interview is the first in a series hosted by M. Hamilton, Ph.D. student in Art History and Visual Culture Studies student. This is a continuing series of interviews over coffee that I, M. Hamilton (PhD students in Art History), am conducting with the graduate students in our department. This week I met up with Defne Oruç on the Terrace. Thanks for reading!
Bio: Defne Oruç joined the Department of Art History in Fall 2025. She is a doctoral student specializing in contemporary art. Her research explores the variations and refusals of testimony in lens-based media, representations of violence, and imaginaries of peace, truth and justice across the Middle East and Latin America. She is pursuing a doctoral minor in Environmental and Visual Studies and the Global South.
Defne, I’m so happy to have this opportunity to get to know you a little bit more. Thanks for joining me on the Terrace. The weather is so perfect today!
Likewise, Hamilton! I am glad we have this opportunity (or excuse haha) to get coffee together.
This is your second Autumn in Madison. Can you tell us about your favorite memory from the last year?
It was a busy year with so many novelties, I had to think for a bit there. I loved having access to the Wisconsin Film Festival through a brilliant seminar I took on film and transnational media ecologies, which was with Prof. Darshana Mini, and I won’t forget Lana Daher’s Do You Love Me (2025) for a while. It is set in Beirut and reworks archival footage for the entire duration of the film. It was also nice to bump into Ati [another PhD student in Art History] at the screening.
Can you tell us a little bit about your day-to-day life when you applied to the PhD program at UW?
I had been living in London, UK for six years and was working full-time teaching an Introduction to Visual Culture class to Art & Design students among other courses at a city college. I also worked over the weekends and soon realized that to do the research I wanted to do, I needed much more than the time I could squeeze in between classes. Otherwise, I spent my time going to exhibitions and walking with my dog, whom I adopted in 2023.
Do you have a picture of your dog on your phone?
Here’s us on Mendota!
What a good dog! What are you looking forward to the most in your life right now, or what is bringing you joy?
Mutual Aid! Learning about and practicing it has been, well… a paradigm shift. Moving here wasn’t easy for me, my partner and my dog and I felt a lot of shame around struggling and asking for help as I had already moved countries once before and managed fine. Professionally, I am looking forward to putting more focus on writing and trying out writing myself out of my comfort zone.
I also had a really hard time making the shift to living in Madison, which is a lovely city, but moving a whole life is really huge commitment. I’m glad to hear that mutual aid is bringing you joy, and I hope that your network continues to grow through your time here.
Did you have an opportunity to participate in any local Autumnal experiences last fall? Apple picking at an orchard or walking a corn maze? Do you have any fun plans for this season?
I did not, but I heard the apple orchards are beautiful. We get together with my neighbors to carve pumpkins though, and the squirrels in our yard love it. My fun plans are to do reading, some more reading, and then some writing, haha.
I love that you carve pumpkins with your neighbors and with the squirrels looking on (and waiting for their chance). What design will you carve into a pumpkin this year?
Last year’s design was a vampire cat, I might carve something more classic this year.
Is there anything about you, your life, your hobbies, or your work that you would like the opportunity to share?
I am part of a research platform for photography and visual culture called Archivo. A couple of weeks ago, we had our yearly conference on the theme of Visual Thinking and The Futures of Democracy. It was great to join from here and moderate a panel where Haley Kinsler and Rik Bhattacharya presented to think about practices that directly challenge anti-Black, colonial, and capitalist technologies.
That sounds really amazing, and huge congrats on moderating such a steller, timely panel. And thank you so much for meeting with me, and for letting the newsletter audience get to know you a little more. Maybe we Art History grads can get an apple orchard trip together in these next few weeks…
Thank you for starting this series. It’s been a pleasure! And please count me in for the trip.