Events

Art Exhibit – love letters: a unique alphabet by hatice örün 

Sancar Turkish Cultural & Community Center

Saturday March 4, from 2-4pm – Brief presentation by Dr. Hatice Örün followed by opening reception with Turkish coffee/tea and desserts (tickets available here for $10)

Running Sunday March 5 – Sunday April 2

 “I want to make you a unique alphabet.” This opening line of a love poem by Nizar Qabbani intrigued me for many years. What would I put in it if I wanted to make an alphabet? I started collecting word stories, learning scripts, making designs and mapping them to my personal and professional landscape. During the first year of pandemic, I assembled them using the form of “elifname” as a guide. Sprouting from Hieroglyphics all the way to Turkish, this is my Alphabet, these are my love letters to all those who taught me.”

Hatice Örün is a native of Istanbul, Türkiye and has lived in Raleigh since 1983.  She is a graduate of Bosphorus University (Istanbul) BS’81, Michigan Technological University MS’83 and North Carolina State University Ph.D’91. All her degrees are in Electrical Engineering.  She started her academic career in the teaching track of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at NCSU.  In 2004, she also started working in the new NCSU/UNC-CH Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.  For the next ten years, she worked with her colleagues and university administrators to create a joint undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program between the two universities. In 2018, she became full-time in the BME department and enjoyed the last two years of her career teaching UNC-CH students.

She is a co-editor of the book Women in Science and Technology (Routledge 2008). Ekmek ve Takvim,  her first book of poems in Turkish was published in 2012.