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Ebru Nihan Celkan

Ebru Nihan Celkan

Ebru Nihan Celkan Diversity & Inclusion Specialist, Playwright

Ebru Nihan Celkan
Ebru Nihan Celkan's Biography

Ebru Nihan Celkan is a playwright, director, educator, and inclusion consultant whose work bridges the worlds of contemporary theatre and social impact. With an academic background in Labor Economics (Uludağ University) and Marketing (Istanbul University), she began her professional career in the corporate sector, serving in various leadership roles at Volvo Construction Equipment from 2004 to 2016, including as Marketing, CRM, and Sales Support Manager. Parallel to her corporate career, Celkan emerged as one of Turkey’s most thought-provoking contemporary playwrights. Her acclaimed plays — including The Hitman, 17.31, Tilt, Where Were We?, The Day After No One Died, My Home! Sweet Home!, Babylon, and Will You Come With Me? — have been staged at leading theatres across Istanbul and Europe. In 2017, she was selected as one of four playwrights globally for KIF – Krieg Im Frieden (War in Pieces), a major international project initiated by Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater and the New Institute for Dramatic Writing (NIDS). Her play from the project premiered at Stuttgart State Theater under the title Last Park Standing in 2019 and had its U.S. debut in 2022. Celkan is the recipient of multiple prestigious residencies and fellowships, including the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and the City of Ludwigsburg Writers-in-Residence Fellowship, where she created Der Weltschmerz, a work focused on cultural diversity and gender. While in Germany, she also designed and led the project Untold Stories: Gender & Memory Walks as part of the “Interacting with History” Festival. In 2016, she founded Y+O, an initiative that designs workshops using gamified and embodied learning methods to address unconscious bias, promote gender equality, cultural diversity, ethical leadership, and creative management practices. Her programs focus on transforming awareness into behavioral change through experiential learning. Ebru Nihan Celkan has delivered trainings, consultancy, and policy development services for a wide range of institutions, including TÜSİAD, Mercedes-Benz Türk, Vodafone, Koç Holding, Zorlu Holding, Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence, UNFPA, UN Global Compact, Coca-Cola Türkiye, Coca-Cola İçecek, Allianz Türkiye, and the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV). Splitting her time between Istanbul and Berlin, Celkan continues to lead workshops, lectures, and artistic productions throughout Turkey, Germany, Austria, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa — focusing on theatre as a tool for dialogue, and on inclusive approaches to gender and cultural representation.

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Ebru Nihan Celkan Speaker Solutions

SPEAKER TOPICS
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Ebru Nihan Celkan Speech Titles
Social Gender Equality

In this talk, our speaker challenges conventional understandings of gender by advocating for a broader, more inclusive vision of equality—one that transcends the traditional male-female binary. They emphasize that gender should not be seen as a limiting framework but rather as a fluid concept that respects individual identity and agency. At its core, gender equality is about allowing all individuals—regardless of their gender identity—to dream, feel, and achieve freely, without societal constraints. This human-centered approach reframes gender not as opposition but as diversity, aligning equality with personal freedom and emotional expression.

The speaker also underlines that gender equality is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity in facing global challenges, including the climate crisis. They urge organizations to move beyond rhetoric and adopt measurable, structural actions that support inclusivity. From HR policies to marketing strategies, companies are called to take responsibility and create systems that ensure equity and representation. The talk closes with an invitation to engage in collective, future-oriented dialogue aimed at fostering genuine change through concrete practices.


Diversity & Inclusion

Drawing on a unique background that bridges the corporate world and the arts, the speaker offers a compelling perspective on diversity and inclusion, underlining that while humanity has always been inherently diverse, inclusion is a much more recent and ongoing challenge. They point out that building inclusive environments requires more than good intentions—it begins with acknowledging the privileges we hold and examining the unconscious biases that shape our perceptions of others. These internalized patterns often dictate who is seen as “normal” and who is marginalized, making self-awareness a foundational step in creating real equity.

The speaker stresses that diversity and inclusion are not abstract ideals but practical, human-centered values that must be reflected in workplace culture and everyday interactions. By confronting personal and systemic biases, organizations can foster spaces where all individuals feel seen, heard, and valued. Ultimately, the talk invites leaders and professionals to engage in honest self-reflection and to actively design inclusive structures that go beyond tokenism, promoting belonging at every level of an organization.

Ebru Nihan Celkan
Ebru Nihan Celkan's Biography

Ebru Nihan Celkan is a playwright, director, educator, and inclusion consultant whose work bridges the worlds of contemporary theatre and social impact. With an academic background in Labor Economics (Uludağ University) and Marketing (Istanbul University), she began her professional career in the corporate sector, serving in various leadership roles at Volvo Construction Equipment from 2004 to 2016, including as Marketing, CRM, and Sales Support Manager.

Parallel to her corporate career, Celkan emerged as one of Turkey’s most thought-provoking contemporary playwrights. Her acclaimed plays — including The Hitman17.31TiltWhere Were We?The Day After No One DiedMy Home! Sweet Home!Babylon, and Will You Come With Me? — have been staged at leading theatres across Istanbul and Europe. In 2017, she was selected as one of four playwrights globally for KIF – Krieg Im Frieden (War in Pieces), a major international project initiated by Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater and the New Institute for Dramatic Writing (NIDS). Her play from the project premiered at Stuttgart State Theater under the title Last Park Standing in 2019 and had its U.S. debut in 2022.

Celkan is the recipient of multiple prestigious residencies and fellowships, including the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and the City of Ludwigsburg Writers-in-Residence Fellowship, where she created Der Weltschmerz, a work focused on cultural diversity and gender. While in Germany, she also designed and led the project Untold Stories: Gender & Memory Walks as part of the “Interacting with History” Festival.

In 2016, she founded Y+O, an initiative that designs workshops using gamified and embodied learning methods to address unconscious bias, promote gender equality, cultural diversity, ethical leadership, and creative management practices. Her programs focus on transforming awareness into behavioral change through experiential learning.

Ebru Nihan Celkan has delivered trainings, consultancy, and policy development services for a wide range of institutions, including TÜSİAD, Mercedes-Benz Türk, Vodafone, Koç Holding, Zorlu Holding, Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence, UNFPA, UN Global Compact, Coca-Cola Türkiye, Coca-Cola İçecek, Allianz Türkiye, and the Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey (TEGV).

Splitting her time between Istanbul and Berlin, Celkan continues to lead workshops, lectures, and artistic productions throughout Turkey, Germany, Austria, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and North Africa — focusing on theatre as a tool for dialogue, and on inclusive approaches to gender and cultural representation.

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