BY İREM NAZ DUYMUŞ (AMER/III)
nazduymus@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
Asst. Prof. Kara McCormack is a faculty member at the Department of American Culture and Literature. Dr. McCormack is an American cultural studies scholar, with a focus on the American West and science fiction, including film, television and public space. She received her PhD in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. At Bilkent, she teaches Introduction to American Studies I and II, Imagining the American West and Science Fiction in American Culture.
Why did you choose an academic career?
I’m not sure if I chose academia or if academia chose me. I had been out of college for 10 years before I considered taking classes again. I landed on American Studies, and I earned my master’s degree while working full time (I had my own business). When I completed the MA program, I was sad it was over, so I applied for my PhD, also in American Studies. During my doctoral program, I taught for the first time, and I loved it. I also worked at an academic journal and loved that process as well. Throw in the research component, and I was hooked.
What do you like the most about being at Bilkent?
The students at Bilkent are its biggest asset. I have been fortunate to teach the Introduction to American Studies class since I started here, allowing me to meet students as first years and see them grow as scholars and people throughout the program. I love seeing them graduate and move onto their next big adventure. My second favorite thing about being here is the close-knit community of faculty who live on campus. Living in close proximity to amazing people makes Bilkent feel like home. (I also love the campus cats!) A close third is the ability to travel around Türkiye and marvel at its culture, history and beauty. I rarely miss the opportunity to travel during breaks from class. My favorite destinations are Antalya and Cappadocia.
What projects are you working on currently?
I recently completed a piece on the ways the themes of the mythic American West emerge in the region known as the Colonies in Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.” This was published by “The Journal of American Studies,” Cambridge University Press, in January. I am currently trying to finish up a project on race, memory and UFO tourism in Roswell, New Mexico, a town made famous because of a UFO landing story from 1947. This narrative has become such a large part of popular culture that Roswell has made UFO tourism its central business endeavor. By focusing on this singular event, the town has rendered nearly invisible a rich and vibrant Native and Mexican history of migration, settlement and cultivation—so this is really a recovery project, centering stories that have typically been placed on the margins. I’ve been working on this project for a long time and hope to finish it up and send it out for publication very soon. It is dedicated to my sister Beth, who passed away last summer. She helped me with some of the research, and I am very grateful to her.
What’s your best work?
In terms of recent work, I would say my article “Searching for Wyatt Earp in Anatolia: The American West in the Turkish Imagination,” published in 2022 by the Journal of Arizona History. For this project I analyzed the Turkish western Yahşi Batı, visited the Turkish western tourist attraction Erkansas City and surveyed Turks in their 50s, 60s and 70s about their love of western movies broadcast in the 1980s and 1990s on TRT. Ethnography is my favorite research method and blending this with textual analysis to discover something about my Turkish home was a true joy for me. My article, “Home. Family. Future: Authenticity, the Frontier Myth, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” also published in 2022 by the science fiction journal ContactZone, is another favorite.
What has been the most exciting moment of your career so far? Could you share a turning point or defining moment in your career?
The day of my dissertation defense, the day I actually became a doctor, was the most exciting day of my life. I remember it vividly, and it will always remain my best moment. Another exciting memory is when I was offered a postdoc at Stanford University, a true gift in so many ways. And, of course, the day I was hired at Bilkent—that day certainly changed my life.
When and where do you do your best thinking?
I do my best thinking at home—sometimes at my desk but sometimes in bed with my laptop, my iPad and my cat Freddie at my side.
What distracts you?
My iPad and my cat Freddie.
What are you most curious about?
I am very interested in why people like the things they do and what meanings they make of the culture they engage in and the products they consume. I love hearing their stories and attempting to place these within broader political, social and historical contexts of the time. I mostly do this through film—sometimes television—and mostly through westerns and science fiction. I am very lucky (and grateful) to be able to do this for a living.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I love to and do watch a LOT of television and a LOT of movies. I love to travel. And I love to spend time with my friends.
Which books have influenced you the most, and why?
There are a number of books I would say are favorites: “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde; “Therese Raquine,” “L’Assommoir” and “Germinal” by Emile Zola; “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin; “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley; “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte; “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury; and “1984” by George Orwell. I am currently reading “The Only Good Indians” by Blackfeet Native American author Stephen Graham Jones, a horror revenge story about cultural identity and tradition. I love science fiction as well as novels that portray something unexpected, the dark underbelly of society, and offer sharp critique of a particular age.
Which films have influenced you the most, and why?
Star Wars: A New Hope was the single-most important movie I ever saw. Other films that I love are Unforgiven, The Book of Eli, The Ox-Bow Incident, Logan’s Run, Blade Runner, the original Planet of the Apes and all three of the 2010s reboot trilogy (Rise, Dawn and War), 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Brokeback Mountain. I have seen all of these movies many, many times, and they still have the same powerful effect on me.
If you weren’t an academic, what career would you choose?
If I were good at math, I would be an astrophysicist. I absolutely love anything about the universe, our solar system and the formation of our moon. Barring that extremely unlikely scenario, I would love to be a curator of popular culture at a cool museum like the Museum of Popular Culture in Seattle or the Autry Center of the American West in Los Angeles.
What is the secret of leading a happy life?
Always be true to yourself. Don’t change to suit others’ ideas of what or who you should be. Learn something every day. Don’t have kids.
If you could go back to your undergraduate/graduate student years, what advice would you give to your younger self?
I would tell myself to learn and love with passion, to forgive more readily and to enjoy each new thing. My father once told me that every year holds something beautiful, and while there has been much tragedy and loss in my life, I still believe that so far, he is right.
