“Empathy and Literature Workshop”, supported by TÜBİTAK 2223-D Project which has been coordinated by Prof. Dr. Mine Özyurt Kılıç, was held online on 21 April 2022 via Zoom. Attended by many participants from Turkey and from all around the world, the workshop consisted of four sessions followed by the opening session.

The keynotes were delivered by Prof. Maggie Gee from Bath Spa University (the UK) with a talk titled “Empathy and Writing,” and by Dr. Jeremy Howick from Oxford University (the UK) with his “Building Bridges: The Role of Empathy.”

In the first session of the workshop, Prof. Dr. Mine Özyurt Kılıç (ASBÜ, English Language and Literature) delivered a talk titled “Cultivating Empathy Through Literature: Ideas, Cases and Testimonials.” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selim Ferruh Adalı (ASBÜ, History) made a presentation titled “Questioning Empathy in Ancient Texts.”

In the second session of the workshop, Prof. Dr. Aytül Özüm (Hacettepe University, English Language and Literature) delivered her speech titled “The Analytic Literary Four.” And Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zümre Gizem Yılmaz Karahan (ASBÜ, English Language and Literature) made a presentation titled “Empathy as the Groundwork to Be More Than Human: Performing Relations in Contemporary Drama.”

In the workshop, there were two interactive breaks: “Breath Break” and “Literature Break.” In the Breath Break, Prof. Dr. Mine Özyurt Kılıç led a three-minute breath exercise. In the Literature Break Assoc. Prof. Dr. Z. Gizem Yılmaz Karahan read Ursula K. Le Guin’s poem entitled “Initiation Song from the Finders’ Lodge.”

And the last session of the programme, H. E. Sonya McGuiness (Ambassador of Ireland in Turkey) set the tone of the Roundtable Discussion “Challenges and Needs in Studying Empathy and Literature.” In the Roundtable Discussion, Maggie Gee kindly read a part of her recent novel entitled The Red Children or Likeness for the participants.

The workshop ended with question and answer session and concluding remarks.