Ulus Sedat Baker (July 14, 1960 in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

– July 12, 2007 in

İstanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

) was a

Turkish Cypriot Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks ( tr, Kıbrıs Türkleri or ''Kıbrıslı Türkler''; el, Τουρκοκύπριοι, Tourkokýprioi) are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,00 ...

sociologist. Baker was born to a cosmopolitan family; his mother was the Cypriot poet

Pembe Marmara Pembe Marmara (25 December 1925 – 31 January 1984) was a Turkish Cypriot poet. She was one of the most important Turkish Cypriot poets of the 1940s and one of the earliest female Turkish Cypriot poets. Her poetry was influenced heavily by the Ga ...

, and his father was the prominent psychiatrist of the island, Sedat Baker. Baker studied in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(then the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

. He completed his studies at the Department of Sociology in

METU Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...

and began his academic life in the same institution shortly thereafter. He was a very productive intellectual and a prolific scholar; he had already become an influential public intellectual in Turkish cultural life beyond the academia by mid-nineties. Although he had always taught within academic institutions, his relation with academia had certain tensions and breaks; he only completed his Ph.D. in 2002 with a thesis titled "From Opinions to Images: Towards a Sociology of Affects", he was uninterested in having a stable academic position, and after 2000 till his death, he had various teaching gigs in different universities in Ankara and Istanbul besides his main affiliation at Middle East Technical University. Shortly before his death, he also started teaching in Istanbul, where he died. Baker was an influential figure in contemporary political theory in Turkey, both as a prolific author, and as a professor of sociology, media, and film theory. From late 80's till his death, he frequently wrote for major Turkish scholarly journals such as ''

Birikim ''Birikim'' (Turkish: ''Accumulation'') is a leftist magazine which has existed since 1975 in Turkey. It was banned by the military authorities in 1980 immediately after the coup. The magazine resumed its publication in 1989. It was a print maga ...

'', ''Toplum ve Bilim'', ''Virgül'', and ''Defter''. He was a polyglot, his fields of interest ranged from literary criticism to the cinema of

Dziga Vertov Dziga Vertov (russian: Дзига Вертов, born David Abelevich Kaufman, russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман, and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet Union, Soviet pioneer documentary f ...

. He significantly contributed to the rise of interest in the philosophy of

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

and

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

through a variety of translations and lecture series. His political commitments inspired him to take part in the founding of

Autonomist Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendenci ...

political/artistic collective Körotonomedya in 1994 with other Ankara-based scholars, students and artists of that time. Körotonomedya collective has been among the forerunners of experimental new media and

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

in Turkey, and Baker's work within the collective became a major theoretical resource in these fields. , Baker was teaching modern visual arts and visual thinking at GİSAM (Audio Visual Systems Research and Production Centre) of METU and at

Istanbul Bilgi University Istanbul Bilgi University ( tr, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi), officially established in 1996, is a private university located in Istanbul, Turkey. The university has 4 campuses centrally-located in Istanbul namely SantralIstanbul, Kuştepe, Do ...

. He died on July 12, 2007 in Istanbul after being hospitalized for chronic liver deficiency. Besides a multitude of articles in various publications, Baker's published works include; ''What is Opinion?'' (Pyromedia, 2001), ''Aşındırma Denemeleri'' (Birikim Yayınları, Istanbul, 2002), ''Siyasal Alanın Oluşumu Üzerine Bir Deneme'' (Paragraf Yayınları, Ankara, 2005).

External links

What is Opinion?
a video lecture by Baker
Körotonomedya
website of the collective
A collection of Ulus Baker's articles at Korotonomedya

Art & Desire Seminars
An international seminar series in memory of Ulus Baker, organized by Korotonomedia, Norgunk Publishers and KozaVisual.
Ulus Baker
at METU Academic Staff Catalogue
Modvisart
Modern Visual Arts course blog {{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Ulus 1960 births 2007 deaths Turkish people of Cypriot descent Middle East Technical University alumni Academic staff of Middle East Technical University Turkish Cypriot non-fiction writers Turkish film critics Turkish literary critics Turkish sociologists Turkish former Muslims Turkish atheists Writers from Ankara Turkish expatriates in Russia Turkish expatriates in France Academic staff of Istanbul Bilgi University