Love and Literature

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will be talking to Jihane Benmassoud. Jihane Benmassoud is a Professor of Education and Communication at the Ecole Supérieure de technologie in Essaouira, Morocco. Her academic work focuses on applied linguistics, gender, and media, with a particular interest in how language and communication intersect with social dynamics. She has published research...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will be in conversation with Liza Mugge. Liza Mugge is a full professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam, where she leads the Politics of Diversity research group. Additionally, she is a senior fellow with the Brussels for Advanced Studies, and has received several grants for her research. She is a co-founder a...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will be in conversation with Mads Rosendahl Thomsen. Mads Rosendahl Thomsen is a professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University and director of the TEXT (Center for Contemporary Cultures of Text) at Danish National Research foundation. Additionally, since March 2023, he also has been the chair of the Book Panel of the Ministry of Culture...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will be in conversation with Lisa van Hove. Dr. Lisa Van Hove is a postdoctoral researcher at BRUCC, Department of Clinical Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She completed her PhD in 2025 on self-harm in older adults. Her research centers on self-harm (non-suicidal self-injury and suicidality) across the lifespan. Lisa also works as a resear...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak Namrata B. Kanchan. Namrata B. Kanchan is a International Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Comparative literature and the Congut Institute for Humanities at Brown University. She holds a doctoral degree from the Department of Asian Studies at the Universty of Texas at Austin, which she completed in 2023. Her research...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Frans Willem Korsten. Frans Willem Korsten is an Emeritus Professor of Literature, Culture and Law at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He has held various academic positions at Leiden University and Erusmus University of Rotterdam, and has published several books, including Art as an Interface of Law and Justic...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Rachel Rodgers. Dr. Rachel Rodergs is an associate professor at the Northeastern University at the College of Health and Sciences. Her interests areas are body image, disordered eating and adolescent/young adult psychopathology, in particular focusing on socio-cultural influences on body image and eating concerns. Her research aims...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Judy Young. Young is an Australian-born performance artists based in Amsterdam. She has a Bachelor degree in Performance Studies from Curtin University, Australia and Kingston University, London. She currently studies TCM at Shenzhou University in Amsterdam (2025-2027). Additionally, she has founded Young Hoops in 2017 blending theatre...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Thomas Palaima. Emeritus professor Thomas G. Palaima is a Mycenologist, the Robert Armstrong Centennial Professor and the founding director of the university's program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory. in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States. His knowledge and expertise are broad...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jeroen Kooijmans. Jeroen Kooijmans (born 1967, Schijndel, The Netherlands) is a renowned artist and filmmaker whose work is at the intersection of art and cinema. With a passion for visual storytelling and a unique artistic vision, he has built a multifaceted career interweaving both visual art and film. In this episode, his latest...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Desta Haile. Bangkok-born British-Eritrean, Desta is a vocalist, educator, researcher, and Creative Director of Languages through Music. She has build cross-cultural, multilingual, creative learning experiences rooted in social justice, won prizes for her writing, started a business and beyond all is spreading her passion and love. In...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Rupankar Dey. Rupankar Dey is a doctoral researcher whose qualitative work explores sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) among people with diverse disabilities living in Uganda’s island communities, with case studies from Kalangala and Buvuma Islands on Lake Victoria. Drawing on in-depth interviews and lived experiences...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jacqueline Olds. Jacqueline Olds is an associate Professor of Psychiatry at the McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts.  She has worked at McLean actively since 1974, when she started her child psychiatry fellowship. She had a full-time job in child psychiatry until 1980, and then became a part-time teacher in both the adult and...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak with Jorim Tielbeek. Jorim Tielbeek is an Assistant Professor at Amsterdam UMC, affiliated with the VU University, and works in the Department of Psychiatry. His research focuses include neuroscience and criminology, and he has been recognized for his educational contributions, such as coordinating an honours programme under the title "The...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak to Victoria Rowe Holbrook. Victoria Rowe Holbrook is a scholar and translator and has taught various courses at different universities worldwide.  She has studied at Harvard and Princeton, obtaining a PhD from the latter in 1985. Her research areas include philosophy, surrealism, world literature, Islamic Studies, Ottoman Studies, Islamic P...

In today's episode, your host (Melinda Karaca) will speak to Imke Rietdijk. Imke Rietdijk is an art historian and is currently working in the cultural field. She has received a bachelor's degree from Leiden University in the Netherlands and completed her master's degree in Edinburgh. Her focus in art revolves mainly around modern and contemporary art. In this episode, Imke will be expl...

In today's episode, your host, Melinda Karaca) will speak to doctoral researcher Mohammed Hamdouni. As a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology & Anthropology with a rich and diverse background in cultural studies, digital marketing, and strategic communication, Mohammed Hamdouni is deeply committed to exploring the intersections between music, dance traditions, and the anthropological fabric that b...

In today's episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Dr. Alexander Moseley. Alexander Moseley is a private tutor, educator, and author of books on philosophy, political philosophy, and educational philosophy; a home educator; and a judo coach. His rich background in various fields, such as ethics, education, politics, and philosophy, has brought valuable insights...

In today's episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Professor Chouraqui. Frank Chouraqui is a lecturer at the Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University. His research has a historical side and a systematic side. The historical aspect is focused on the philosophies of Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty, especially their ontologies of relationality and their connection...

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Stevie Suan. Stevie Suan is an Associate Professor at Hosei University in the Faculty of Global and Interdisciplinary Studies. He holds a doctorate in Manga Studies from the Graduate School of Manga Studies at Kyoto Seika University, received his M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa, and hi...

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca speaks to Professor Ortega about what love entails. Professor Ortega is a scholar in Language Education & Applied Linguistics. He bridges theories and practice, teaching future educators how to implement inclusive, culturally responsive, and pluriversal pedagogies. His research is collaborative and embodied, employing et...

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca talks with Julide Sezer about Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence. This book has recently also been turned into a series. Julide Eda Sezer is an independent researcher who is interested in critical posthumanism, new materialism, decolonization, and postcolonialism, and explores the complex and intertwined relationships bet...

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca talks to the multilingual educator Maider Muñoz Bujedo. Maider Muñoz Bujedo is an experienced educator with a background in Translation and Interpretation (German and English). Her career has taken her across Germany, the United States, India, China, Costa Rica, Chile, and Spain, teaching in various classroom settings. Curre...

In this episode of the Love & Literature podcast, host Melinda Karaca examines The Wife of Bath’s Tale, a narrative from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, with Noralia Karaca. Noralia Karaca is a second-year literature student at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, whose academic interests focus particularly on Medieval English literature. In this episode, she provides an a...

In today's episode of the Love & Literature podcast, Melinda Karaca (your host) will discuss the role of AI and love with Professor Stephen M. Whitehead. Dr. Stephen M Whitehead finished his doctorate at Leeds Beckett University in 1996. He is a sociologist and international expert on men, masculinities, gender identity, and education. He has written many books on these aforementioned topics a...