In partnership with Scottish Universities’ International Summer School, we are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2025 Edwin Morgan Scholarships. The scholarships, which cover course and accommodation fees for students to attend the two-week Scottish Literature course at SUISS this August, are awarded to early-career academics from the UK and abroad who do not have Scottish Literature courses at their home universities but who have demonstrated a committed interest in the subject. The Scholars participate in a wide-ranging academic and cultural programme and have the chance to engage face-to-face with locally based writers.
Meet the 2025 Edwin Morgan Scholars:
About the EM Scholars
Cai Nana is currently pursuing a doctoral degree on contemporary Scottish theatre at Shanghai International Studies University, having completed a Master’s degree on the fiction of John Galt, focusing on Annals of the Parish, The Provost and The Entail. She has already published two papers in academic journals and a book chapter on the study of John Galt’s works, ‘Mediating John Galt: Translating The Entail into Chinese’, in Scotland and China: Literary Encounters (DeGruyter Brill, March 2025). Her newly published paper is on Tim Barrow’s Union.
Muammer Özoltulular is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Middle East Technical University, Turkey, specialising in contemporary British drama. His doctoral research engages with questions of violence, nonhumans, subjectivities, forms, and materiality in the plays of Simon Stephens
through the lens of new materialisms. He holds an MA in English Literature, for which he completed a dissertation entitled “Joe Orton’s Vestige and Delineation of Gay Male Characters in His Plays: Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Loot, The Ruffian on the Stair, and What the Butler Saw”. This study explored the subversive portrayals of queer male identity in Orton’s oeuvre. Muammer Özoltulular is currently employed as a research assistant in the Department of English Language and Literature at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University. His broader academic interests are posthumanism, environmental humanities, postcolonial studies, and feminisms. He is particularly interested in how contemporary drama responds to material, ecological, and ideological crises.
Gamze Şentürk Tatar is an academician in the Department of English Language and Literature at Munzur University. Her MA thesis focused on feminist strategies used in contemporary British theatre, while her PhD thesis explored the hybrid nature of the Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson’s theatre. She is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Sheffield, conducting postdoctoral research on theatre and ecology, two areas of her passion. She is the recipient of the 2025 Edwin Morgan Scholarship for the Scottish Literature Module at the Scottish Universities International Summer School (SUISS). Her research interests include Critical Thinking, Creative Writing, Playwriting, Anthony Neilson, Ecological Studies, Alienation Studies, British Theatre, Scottish Theatre and Performance Studies.
I am sure to be the happiest reader of Scottish literature to have chance to view the wonderful country, the land and city which have been portrayed by Scottish writers. I hope to have access to more studies of Scottish literature, insightful readings and diverse voices from the SUISS team and scholars of Scottish literature, and, if possible, collect some essential materials for the drafting of the dissertation.
— Cai Nana
I applied to the SUISS Text and Context: Scottish Literature program to gain critical insights into Scottish literature’s distinctive features and cultural identity. The program explores Scottish literary traditions across different historical periods, which will provide me with a contextual foundation for my future academic research in the field. I believe that participating in the program, made possible by the Edwin Morgan Scholarship, which I am honoured to receive, will immensely contribute to the undergraduate course I plan to open in the department, where I will teach in Turkey, titled Modern Scottish Drama. I hope to contribute to the appreciation of Scottish literature in the British Literature department curricula in Turkey.
— Muammer Özoltulular
I am incredibly excited to spend the summer immersed in Scottish literature, a field I feel deeply connected to through both my academic work and my lifelong bond with nature. Though I’ve never been to Scotland, I’ve often imagined its landscapes—its mountains, forests, and waters—which have long lived in my imagination as a reflection of my emotional and creative connection to the natural world. My journey into Scottish literature began in 2017 with my doctoral project titled “Hybridity in the Selected Plays of Anthony Neilson”, through which I explored the experiential theatre of Anthony Neilson. To now have the opportunity to be in Scotland is both a professional milestone and a personal dream come true. I eagerly look forward to the transformative experiences that will feed me academically, creatively, and spiritually. I am truly excited for the journey that lies ahead—one that promises to enrich me not only as a scholar, but also as an artist and a human being.
– Gamze Şentürk Tatar
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