Jocelyn Aksin

Intellectual Biography

Jocelyn Aksin's research focuses on Turkish German Studies, with particular interests in cultural memory, translation, and literary and cultural exchange between Turkey and the German-speaking world. She has published on the works of Turkish German author, actress, and playwright Emine Sevgi Özdamar and received her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis with a dissertation examining representations of memory in novels by Zafer Şenocak, Aras Ören, Feridun Zaimoğlu, and Özdamar.

At UNC, Jocelyn teaches German language, culture, Business German, and literature courses. She developed GERM 307, “German for Educational and Community Engagement,” a service-learning course that partners with the nationwide SPARK for German initiative jointly administered by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG) and the Goethe-Institut.

Through placements in local schools and community organizations, the course enables students to apply their German language skills in authentic educational settings while supporting German language learning in North Carolina. She also coordinates the department's Business German curriculum, culminating in preparation for the internationally recognized WiDaF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache in der Wirtschaft) proficiency examination.

Before joining UNC in 2023, Jocelyn spent nearly eight years living in Istanbul, where she completed her dissertation research and worked as a language teacher. She later taught in the German Program at the University of North Carolina Greensboro before joining the Department of Germanic & Slavic Languages and Literatures at UNC–Chapel Hill.