Rice University anthropologist Gökçe Günel traced her path from childhood novels in Turkey to groundbreaking ethnographic research during a Sept. 10 talk at Fondren Library, hosted by the Friends of Fondren Library as part of its Books That Shaped My World series.
“These books taught me that an imaginative inner world is one of the best resources a person can create for themselves,” said Günel, associate professor of anthropology at Rice and author of several books.
Growing up, literature provided both escape and insight for Günel. Hermann Hesse’s “Demian,” she recalled, convinced her that “everyone had only one true vocation — to find themselves.”
Attending boarding school at a young age deepened those lessons, she said. “Sharing representations of utterly unimportant experiences created a bond between us awkward and overachieving children … and made us into a community,” Günel said.
Günel’s intellectual path eventually led her to anthropology. After a devastating 1999 earthquake in Turkey, she studied how developers marketed gated communities as protection, “normalizing surveillance and exclusion.” Later, while researching microfinance in India, she found that programs hailed as empowerment often left women still poor and socially isolated.
“I finally discovered myself,” she said. “I observed that I have a good memory, I enjoy writing, and I don’t mind getting myself into uncomfortable situations, which can be an asset in ethnographic projects.”
Her first book, “Spaceship in the Desert,” grew out of years of research on Masdar City, an experimental development pitched as a model of renewable energy and clean technology in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi. Günel is now completing two forthcoming books: “Floating Power” on Turkish energy infrastructure projects in Ghana and “Patchwork Ethnography,” co-authored with colleagues, which examines how scholars’ personal lives shape their fieldwork. Both are set to be published in 2026.
Reflecting on the novels and research that shaped her world, Günel said she sees her books much like the literature that inspired her: as sustained attempts to understand worlds both imagined and real and her place within them.
“The experience of writing this talk was very introspective and transformative,” she said. “It allowed me to track how various, seemingly unrelated experiences of reading have brought me to my current research questions and interests.
“It was also a wonderfully novel way to introduce myself to colleagues, students and alumni. I hope my talk shows how books create rich inner worlds and shape the ways we live our lives. No other medium can serve as a substitute.”
The Books That Shaped My World series invites Rice faculty and alumni to reflect on the works that most influenced their thinking, research and careers. To learn more, visit library.rice.edu/places/friends-fondren-library.