Walder, Aylin Dilek, M.A.

PhD Project

“Affinitive Identities: Indigenous Onto-Epistemologies and (K)New Materialisms in Contemporary Anglophone Speculative Fiction.”
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Heinze, TU Braunschweig, Germany; JProf.’ Dr.’ Judith Rauscher, University of Cologne, Germany.

This doctoral project proposes affinity as a (k)new concept for thinking and practicing identity that relies on the premise that the human animal is be-longing with(in) the world; a notion for which Māori onto-epistemologies and (K)New Materialisms are read in concord with quantum entanglement and queer futurity. Bringing different knowledge systems into conversation with one another then leads to 5 principles: (1) affinity is (k)new, (2) is to be ki(n), (3) is to be (trans)material, (4) is to be-long, and (5) is an ethic and practice. Beginning with the methodology of the project by elaborating on (1) the coloniality of knowledge production and decolonial methodology, the project (2) draws on Robin Wall Kimmerer’s pronouns ki and kin to then trace Marshal Sahlin’s transpersonality, among others, back to whakapapa and whanaungatanga. Next (3), notions of vibrant matter and trans-corporeality embedded in microbiology and quantum entanglements are combined with Māori concepts like mauri, whenua, and Papatūānuku, and (4) notions like whakapapa or takatāpui are related to the development of Anglo-American kinship theory and the idea of queer be-longing. While the first part of the project is concerned with theoretical development, the second part tests the theory of affinity against contemporary literature, whereby the corpus of global speculative fiction is treated as an affective archive of philosophy – as repositories of knowledge already articulating affinitive thinking (pūrākau). Ultimately, the project asks what an affinitive ethic means for being human: not only how selves are understood, but what they owe to those to whom they are related.

Project Speculative Ontologies

The project on Speculative Ontologies explores how 21st-century speculative fiction engages with the complex realities of the contemporary, shaped by climate catastrophes, sociopolitical instability, technological developments, and mounting global inequalities. The project positions speculative fiction as a vital space for reimagining what it means to be human amid overlapping crises, as well as for envisioning alternative futures grounded in resilience, hope, and critical reflection.

• funding from Innovationsfonds, TU Braunschweig
• Co-organization of the workshop “Speculative Cultures” with Lisa Cristea (TU Braunschweig)
• Co-editorial of a special issue “Speculative Cultures and the Metamodern Turn” with Vasileios Delioglanis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
• Co-organization of the workshop “Speculative Cityscapes” with Jacqueline Barner-Bauer and Raphaela Nickel (TU Braunschweig)
• Co-organization of the workshop “Speculative Climates” with Gianluca Calio (Goethe Universität Frankfurt)

Research Areas

• Ecocriticism and New Materialism
• Gender and Queer Studies
• Postcolonial Studies
• Speculative Fiction
• Adaptation and Film Studies

Edited Volumes

• with Vasileios Delioglanis. "Speculative Cultures and the Metamodern Turn." AmLit: American Literatures 7.2, Special Issue (forthcoming 2027).

• with Kristin Aubel, Marion Gymnich and Carsten Kullmann. Jenseits von Elbisch – Konstruierte Sprachen in phantastischen Welten / Beyond Elvish – Constructed Languages in Fantastic Worlds: Inklings-Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik / Inklings: Yearbook of Literature and Aesthetics 43. Göttingen: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, forthcoming 2027.

• with Kristin Aubel, Marion Gymnich and Carsten Kullmann. Phantastik für Kinder – Kinder in der Phantastik / Fantasy for Children – Children in Fantasy: Symposium 2024 in Malberg. Inklings-Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik / Inklings: Yearbook of Literature and Aesthetics 42. Göttingen: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 2026. DOI: 10.32784/libaac-3859.

• with Melisa Köroğlu and Johanna Pitetti-Heil. "Early Career Researchers Issues XI" gender forum 24.1 (forthcoming).
• with Kristin Aubel, Maria Fleischhack, Marion Gymnich and Carsten Kullmann. Dem Tode zum Trotz: Unsterblichkeit und Wiedergeburt in der Phantastik / Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in the Fantastic: Symposium 2023 in Magdeburg. Inklings-Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik / Inklings: Yearbook of Literature and Aesthetics 41. Göttingen: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 2025.

Articles

• "Reimagining Human-Nature Relations Through Asymmetrical Ecological (Inter)Dependencies in N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Series." Ecological Interdependencies: Strong Asymmetrical Relations and More-than-Human Worlds. Eds. Zeynep Y. Gökce and Jennifer Leetsch. DeGruyter, 2025. 283-298. DOI: 10.1515/9783112217764-014.
• "Depressed Immortals: Immortality and Ecocriticism in Brandon Sanderson's Elantris (2005)." Dem Tode zum Trotz: Unsterblichkeit und Wiedergeburt in der Phantastik / Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in the Fantastic: Symposium 2023 in Magdeburg. Eds. Kristin Aubel, Maria Fleischhack, Marion Gymnich, Carsten Kullmann and Aylin Dilek Walder. Inklings-Jahrbuch für Literatur und Ästhetik / Inklings: Yearbook of Literature and Aesthetics 41. Göttingen: Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 2025. 95-111.
• "Gothic Nature in Fantasy Fiction: The White Walkers as Dreadful Agents of Nature in Game of Thrones." Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 89, Special Edition "Ecogothic, Monstrosity, and Climate Emergency," eds. Imelda Martín Junquera and Cristina Casado Presa (2024): 69-87. DOI: 10.25145/j.recaesin.2024.89.04.
• "Cultural Appropriation of Poland's Fantasy: The Cold War Saga o Wiedźminie Moving into American Mainstream Culture." The Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. Eds. Elana Gomel and Danielle Gurevitch. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. 289-305.

Reviews

• of Jerry Rafiki Jenkins. Anti-Blackness and Human Monstrosity in Black American Horror Fiction. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2024. 166 pp + x. Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 36.2 (2025): 224-228.
• of Gero Bauer. Hope and Kinship in Contemporary Fiction: Moods and Modes of Temporality and Belonging. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2024. 272 pp. In Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 36.1 (2025): 149-151.
• of Natalie Dederichs. Atmosfears: The Uncanny Climate of Contemporary Ecoficition. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2023. 286 pp. In Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 35.3 (2024): 205-207.
• of Martin Kuester. More or Less Educational: Literary Godgames in Anglophone Literature from Chaucer to Atwood. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2022. 143 pp. In Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 35.1 (2024): 233-35.