Gökçe Günel

Cover of Floating Power: Energy, Infrastructure, and South-South Relations by Gökçe Günel. The cover is a solid navy blue with a line drawing resembling a ship in white. The line drawing also features a plug. All text is written in a sans serif light blue font. The title is centered at the top of the cover and the subtitle appears below. The author’s name is in the bottom right.

In "Floating Power," Gökçe Günel uses a Turkish-built floating power plant in Ghana as a vehicle to analyze how inventive infrastructure shapes South-South relations and embodies broader imaginations of energy futures. Read the intro for free now: buff.ly/krMlz5j

Limn 13 Spotlight Series

Gökçe Günel and Orit Halpern personally examine how human likeness becomes mediated and reclaimed through AI.

Limn 13 - Ghostwriters

Out now.

limn.press/article/orit...

Both @drgokcegunel.bsky.social from Rice and @evgenymorozov.bsky.social from The Syllabus hold the democratic ground. Titus Gebel, however, does not.

– cc @greglindsay.org
– cc @sarahkmoser.bsky.social

Events — Patchwork Ethnography

The Patchwork Ethnography Winter School will take place at Rice’s Paris Center between December 14-18, 2026. We invite 10 PhD students to explore ethnographic research with us. Please apply by April 13, 2026.

For more information: www.patchworkethnography.com/events

Last Thursday, our department gathered with Associate Professor Gökçe Günel and other members of the Limn editorial collective (@limnpress.bsky.social), Jerry Zee, Jason Cons, and Townsend Middleton, for a Limn party at the Transart Foundation.

Have you watched this episode of Freakonomics yet?

Our professor, Gökçe Günel @drgokcegunel.bsky.social, is the guest of episode 643, "Why Do Candles Still Exist?", and she discusses obsolescence, commodities, and energy.

Listen to her here: freakonomics.com/podcast/why-...

Really enjoyed recording this podcast with @drgokcegunel.bsky.social

Masdar City and NEOM are bizarre developments, where the climate sector's most utopian and most greedy tendencies violently clash. Whatever your take, these petrostate megaprojects are more than mere curiosities.

The Gulf World That Air Conditioning Wrought | NOEMA From Saudi Arabia to Qatar, rulers have used modern air conditioning to control landscapes and lives, forgoing traditional methods of keeping cool.

Are people still fired up about air conditioning? Because I wrote a little something* about how mechanical cooling remade much of the Gulf and how some local architects and climate advocates have begun to question its tradeoffs.

*it's not little, it's long-form, but I hope you'll read it 🙏

Against Catastrophe The aim of this project is to interrogate the concept of catastrophe – how it is defined, analyzed, and deployed – and anti-catastrophic practices in an attempt to envision alternatives to our present...

Just launched: Against Catastrophe's the second installation of "Reclaiming Futures":"Planetary Urbanisms." Proud to have my essay along with those from Gökçe Günel,Orit Halpern and Olamide Udoma-Ejorh as well as films from Michaela Büsse and Dele Adeyamo.

againstcatastrophe.net

Limn 12 Spotlight Series

Sarah Besky, Alex Nading, & Jason Cons open Limn 12 by deepening what it means for Limn to tell climate stories from the inside out.

Limn 12 - Climate's Interiors. Out now.

limn.press/article/pref...

Anything in Turkey | The Brooklyn Rail There is a saying in Turkish politics: “This is Turkey, anything can happen.” Deployed at the coffee shop or amidst glasses of anise-infused rakı to cope with tragedy or farcical politics, this state-...

For a comprehensive, insightful summary of Turkish politics in the last 15 years, read “Anything in Turkey” brooklynrail.org/2025/07/fiel...

Limn Issue 12: Climate's Interiors is out now online and in print.

Read anywhere with the link below.

limn.press/issue/climat...

Limn 12, Climate's Interiors, has dropped online. Get it now, for free at the link below or in bio. Limn works because of authors, readers, and issue co-editors, everyone collaborating in our new approach to peer review.

limn.press/issue/climat...

LIMN CALL FOR PITCHES - 2026 AND 2027 ISSUES

do you have an oblique take on a contemporary issue?

are you searching for new models of collaboration and publication?

if so...
submit a pitch to limn by May 31st

submit here: limn.press/collaborate/

link in bio

Rice students explore urban sustainability in Paris Center course In May, a group of Rice University students found themselves navigating the intricate streets of Paris, not as tourists but as active participants in a course that dug into the complexities of urban sustainability. Led by Gökçe Günel, associate professor of anthropology, the three-week program was hosted by the Rice Global Paris Center, providing students with a unique educational experience that combined classroom learning with real-world exploration. Learn more about the Paris Center here: https://global.rice.edu/pariscenter

In May, Rice University students explored urban sustainability in Paris through a three-week course led by Professor Gökçe Günel, combining classroom learning with real-world experience at the Rice Global Paris Center. #RiceSocSci #ShapingTheFuture
Watch Here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqVG...

Doç. Dr. Gökçe Günel, yeşil kent projelerinin iklim değişikliğine çözüm olamayacağı gibi, seçilmiş insanları kurtarabilecek, “çöldeki uzay gemileri” olduğunu anlattı

Özer Akdemir'in haberi https://www.evrensel...

Offshore grid: the rise of the power ship Power ships extend the electricity grid at sea, but their geopolitical ramifications reach even further | Essays

‘At shipyards in Istanbul’s Tuzla neighbourhood, Karadeniz Holidung retrofits old ships,’ writes Gökçe Günel in the Extensions issue, ‘mainly bulk carriers sitting idle after the Great Recession, to serve as platforms for power generation.’

Now accepting pitches for future issues. Got an idea? Invite us to your party, and let’s build Limn 13 together. Website for more details.

Events — Patchwork Ethnography

🎉We have a contract! @uchicagopress.bsky.social will publish the Patchwork Ethnography textbook. If you're an Early Career scholar, please consider applying to our workshop. We're looking for contributors who can help advance our theorization. Deadline 6 Dec: patchworkethnography.com/events.

As they finalize the book for their Patchwork Ethnography project, our faculty Dr. Gökçe Günel and her collaborator Dr. Chika Watanabe are looking for early-career scholars who have benefited from the idea of patchwork ethnography. Click this link for submissions: www.patchworkethnography.com/events

Obsolescence comes for everything, even you. Now available in beautiful hard copy. @jamieljones.bsky.social @princeguma.bsky.social @lalehkhalili.bsky.social @rajpatel.bsky.social @slobster48602.bsky.social

Events — Patchwork Ethnography

📣 We’re working on a Patchwork Ethnography textbook and we’re looking to include 10 essays from early career scholars who can help us develop our theorizations further. We plan to run remote workshops to build ideas together. More info and apply here: patchworkethnography.com/events