Mervenur Çetin

A large, wall-mounted transparent panel filled with overlapping translucent shapes resembling speech bubbles, code fragments, and interface wireframes, all floating above a clean, modern sideboard. The panel’s elements subtly form an abstract outline of a brain, hinting at identity, culture, and artificial intelligence converging. Below, closed books with neutral covers and a single ceramic vase sit in ordered alignment. Soft, diffused studio lighting from the top left creates delicate reflections on the panel and crisp but gentle shadows on the wall. Photographic realism, eye-level composition with the panel centered, emphasizing clarity and conceptual depth. The mood is thoughtful and professional, ideal for a header image on an academic portfolio site about discourse and technology.

Teaching

I teach at the intersection of discourse, technology, design, and artificial intelligence, with a focus on intercultural communication, discourse, and qualitative research methods. Across undergraduate and language instruction, I invite students to analyze how communication practices and technologies shape culture, identity, and power, and to design more equitable communicative futures.

As a Ph.D. Candidate in Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder, I design learning environments that bridge humanistic inquiry in discourse and intercultural communication with the practical demands of working in datafied, AI-mediated societies. My teaching foregrounds how qualitative, discourse-based methods can illuminate these social, cultural and technical dynamics.

Courses Taught

University of Colorado Boulder

Graduate Part-time Instructor, Department of Communication (August 2023 – Present)

  • COMM 2410: The Practice of Intercultural Communication —
  • COMM 3410: Intercultural Communication
  • COMM 2400: Discourse, Culture, Identity .
  • COMM 3740: Qualitative Research Methods

Yeditepe University, School of Foreign Languages

Full-time Instructor (January 2023 – August 2023)

  • English as a Foreign Language

Istanbul Kent University, School of Foreign Languages

Part-time Instructor (September 2022 – November 2022)

  • English as a Foreign Language

Sabancı University, School of Languages

Part-time Instructor (March 2022 – June 2022)

  • English as a Foreign Language

Turkish Naval Academy, School of Foreign Languages, National Defense University

Instructor (October 2017 – October 2021)

  • English as a Foreign Language

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching is rooted in student-centered learning and an understanding of communication as a design problem: what becomes sayable and imaginable within the nexus of social, cultural and technical domains. I invite students to bring their own experiences with humans and technologies into the classroom, treating them as collaborators who co-construct knowledge rather than passive recipients of content.

To support analytical and reflective thinking, I combine discussion-based seminars with hands-on workshops, collaborative projects, and iterative feedback. Students practice moving between conceptual frameworks and concrete examples. My goal is for them to leave the classroom with practical tools, confidence, and curiosity about how social life can be reimagined and social practices can be cultivated for a better future.