Sezen Kayhan has been a research assistant at the Institute for Film, Theater, Media and Cultural Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz since April 2022. In 2020, she jointly obtained her doctorate from the University of Antwerp and Koç University with a doctoral dissertation on screen production and urban transformation in Istanbul. Previously, she studied Archeology and Art History (BA, Bilkent) and Film and TV (MA, Bahçeşehir). She has worked professionally in the production of feature films, television series and documentaries in Turkey, Italy, the US and Germany. Kayhan is the author of two books, has published in international journals and leads participatory filmmaking workshops in Europe. Her award-winning films have been screened at festivals such as Tribeca, BFI London, Montreal World and Palm Springs, while her artistic works have been shown in several museums.

Student advisor of IMACS program

Campus Media Coordination

Organization of the annual film screening as part of the Film Practice course

European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS)

Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)

European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)

European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA)

Film Independent

Women in Film

1. MA Ü. Kritisches Schreiben: Small Stories in AI: Sustainable Video Production
   Instructor: Sezen Kayhan; Utku Önal
2. PrS. Filmpraxis: Acts of Solidarity – Imagining Collective Futures
   Instructor: Sezen Kayhan

SoSe 2026

Sustainable Media Production

Participatory Filmmaking

Speculative Fiction

Turkish Film, Television, and Digital Platforms

Cinematic Spaces

Additional Research Projects

PI of the research project ‘Against Screen Extractivism: Slow Production and Spectatorship” funded by the Volkswagen Foundation