University of California, Los Angeles

Alumna, World Arts and Cultures

Lecturer

Pacific Womens College

About

Dr. Jaynie Aydin is a folklorist, visual anthropologist, and world dance researcher. She received her PhD from UCLA’s department of World Arts and Cultures in 2007. She has professed in institutions such as UCLA, The UCLA Fowler Museum (www.fowler.ucla.edu), California State University Northridge, The Ventura Community Colleges, Istanbul Technical University, Yasar University, and the State Performance Conservatory at EGE University (www.ege.edu.tr/en) in Izmir, Turkey. She is currently an international professor in residence and teaches courses such as Dance, Visual Ethnography, and Cultural Anthropology at Pacific Womens College, Hawai’i's premiere college devoted to educating women in the Pacific and around the world (www.pacificwomenscollege.org).

Folklore is a family affair. Jaynie works in close association with her father in law, EGE University Professor emeritus Dr. Cengiz Aydin, who has engineered the highly innovative Balkan Research Project. Over the last decade the Balkan research team including Jaynie’s husband Dr. Emir Cenk Aydin, Abdurrahim Karademir, and EGE University Folk Dance Professor Dr. M. Ocal Ozbilgin have collected numerous historical artifacts from the Balkans, the Black Sea region, and Turkey for the sake of preserving intangible cultural heritage and archiving precious audio-visual resources. The musical instruments, traditional costumes, jewelry, and accessories will be exhibited in the new EGE University Ethnography Museum in Bornova, Izmir (http://etnografyamuzesi.ege.edu.tr/). Jaynie assists the team in their interpretation of the field data and is responsible for offering her skills when it comes to publishing and promoting museum related materials to the English speaking world.

As a scholar of many disciplines Jaynie teaches a wide range of courses including but not limited to Anthropology, Archaeology, Ethnography, Western Civilization, Dance Ethnology, Humanities, Textiles of the Middle East and Anatolia, Video Production for the Arts, Folklore and Mythology, Art History, and Modern Global Studies as well as studio dance class.

Dr. Jaynie Aydin is a Los Angeles native, born in Hollywood and raised in West Los Angeles, California. She divides her time between her family in California and Turkey, Hawai’i and New Zealand.

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