About Me.
Growing up, I considered my native Turkey a temporary nest I would fly out of one day. After finishing my BA in Sociology, I lived in Canada and Japan. Homesickness pulled me back to Istanbul in 2020. I found myself obsessed with the history and anthropology of the lands where I grew up.
I am a trained social scientist, and a local, but I discovered Turkey like a newcomer in 2020. I know what it means to be utterly curious about another culture--I've lived in 5 countries and traveled to many more. I have two Masters degrees, one in Tourism (2021) and one in Cultural Studies (2025).
I've been a full time cultural communicator as a teaching assistant at the university, a YouTuber and a tour guide for years. When you need help figuring out what this city is all about, I'll be your guide!
What I do
2023-Present
Cultural and Culinary Guiding
I got my official guiding license in 2023. I guided on my days off of grad school until 2025 January. Since then, I've been guiding full time. I've told the stories of Istanbul to hundreds of guests and have never received a rating below 5/5!
I do culinary guiding with Culinary Backstreets Istanbul. Contact them if you wanna do a food tour with me. If you want me as your cultural guide, send me an email.
2016-Present
Fork Borders Web Series
aka. MishaDefne
In 2016, I started vlogging my study abroad in Tokyo on YouTube. Then I found myself having amassed 45K subscribers on YT and 10K on Instagram. I create bilingual content that communicates complex topics to diverse audiences, in video essays, travelogues, comedy skits, and vlogs.
I did sponsored content for Sony Xbox, Cambly, and Udemy. After a 3 year break, I will return to Youtube in English in 2025.
1995-Present
Academics
I'm a lifelong student. I studied Sociology at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. I did an MA in Cultural Studies in 2025 at Sabancı University in Istanbul on a full scholarship. I wrote an ethnographic thesis about the Anthropocene. I was a teaching assistant to humanities courses during my last degree.
I studied abroad: Chuo University in Tokyo on ICM+ scholarship in 2016, SciencesPo in Paris on Erasmus in 2017, Waseda University in Tokyo on MEXT in 2019, and National Taiwan University in Taipei on ICM+ in 2023. All of these studies were fully funded based on merit.
My Services
Get in Touch
Contact me about my services, book a tour or cultural communication consultancy.
