Deniz Torcu — Higher education leadership, migration and identity
Deniz Torcu

Deniz Torcu

Higher education leadership · Migration · Gender · Culture · Madrid

Institutions decide who belongs. Those decisions look cultural and turn out to be economic.

I have been trained four times over: in economics, in international relations, in literature, and now in cultural studies and the humanities, which is where the other three finally meet. Economics taught me to ask who pays. International relations taught me who sets the terms. Literature taught me who gets to narrate. Eight years in cultural diplomacy turned out to be those questions asked at once: at UNESCO, running heritage and cultural development projects across governments, NGOs and international partners, and before that at the Instituto Cervantes in Istanbul, building public programming in literature, film and the arts.

Since 2015 I have worked inside higher education. First across regions and markets, then in executive leadership, and now with responsibility for a portfolio of specialised master’s programmes: its strategy, its academic governance, and its redesign towards the flexible, career-aligned formats graduate education is moving to. Much of that work is unglamorous. Curriculum reform, cross-campus coordination, quality assurance, and the slow business of keeping a portfolio coherent while it expands.

I teach because it keeps the argument honest. Globalization, Business and Media. Cross-Cultural Communication. Leading with Diversity. Well-Being in Practice. Human Rights and Social Inclusion. Students voted me Best Professor of the 2025 to 2026 academic year.

The doctorate came later and pulled the rest together. At the Universidad de Salamanca and the Ortega-Marañón Institute I work on language, diasporic identity and transnational narrative in Europe. Running alongside all of it, and outlasting every post I have held, is the translation work: ten books carried from Spanish into Turkish since 2011, from Pacheco and Navarro to a history of philosophy told in images. It is the part of the work with no institutional logic at all, and the part that has taught me most about what survives a crossing and what does not.

None of this is a distant subject. I am an immigrant raising a multilingual child, in a family shaped by displacement, where Georgian, Turkish, Greek, German and Spanish have each been a home at some point and a distance at another. It is the question underneath everything that follows.

Invite me to speak Read the writing
Portrait of Deniz Torcu
Executive Director of Portfolio · Doctoral researcher · Literary translator
2024 Rising Talent, Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society
Published in and quoted by
NBC News Forbes The Conversation Ethic Telos, Fundación Telefónica Women's Forum for the Economy and Society Expansión FAES
01Speaking

Nine stages, three languages.

From TEDx and the Women’s Forum to live broadcast panels on European migration policy. I moderate as readily as I present.

TEDx talk, Redesigning Blueprints
TEDx · IE Madrid

Redesigning Blueprints

How languages work as emotional blueprints, and what it takes to redraw the narratives we inherit.

Watch
CGTN Europe interview
CGTN Europe · Live broadcast

Europe’s response to Spain’s border crisis

How quickly the far right converted a border incident into a story about invasion.

Watch
Cadena SER podcast
Cadena SER · Podcast

A global mindset in a fragmented world

Rethinking mobility and privilege once the conditions that made mobility easy begin to close.

Listen

Subjects I am asked to speak on

  • Migration as an economic argument rather than a moral one
  • Who gets seen: gender, AI and the distribution of visibility
  • Higher education under demographic and political pressure
  • Cross-cultural communication in global organisations
  • Language, memory and multilingual identity
  • Cultural diplomacy and heritage across the Mediterranean
  • Inclusion as institutional design rather than sentiment
  • The global economy read through the humanities
Other stages
  • Women Pioneering Tech-Driven Change
    Women Pioneering Tech-Driven ChangeWomen’s Forum for the Economy & Society
  • AI, Education and HR panel
    AI, Education & HR: Embracing the Skills RevolutionWomen’s Forum for the Economy & Society
  • Turkish Education Foundation talk
    The importance of future-forward educationTurkish Education Foundation
  • JCI Türkiye talk
    Cross-cultural communication and inventing a global selfJunior Chamber International Türkiye
  • GMAC European Conference
    Embracing digital student engagementGMAC European Conference
  • Women in Diplomacy panel
    Women in diplomacy: how to become a glocal leaderIE Business School

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02Selected
writing

Migration, gender and the economics of attention.

Analysis for general readers, picked up by NBC News, Forbes México and Fundación Telefónica. Pieces written for The Conversation are republished under Creative Commons across four languages and a long tail of outlets, so what follows is a selection rather than a full record.

Read more

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03Translation

Ten books, Spanish into Turkish.

Contemporary Spanish and Latin American fiction and essays for Turkish publishers, since 2011.

Five more

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04Background

Degrees, languages and current work.

Deniz Torcu speaking
Deniz Torcu in conversation
Opening event at IE University

Education

  • Doctoral candidate, Cultural Studies and Humanities Universidad de Salamanca
  • Social Anthropology, short course University of Oxford
  • MA International Relations IE University
  • MA Spanish Language and Literature Istanbul University
  • BA Economics Istanbul University

Languages

  • Turkish Native
  • Spanish Full professional
  • English Full professional
  • Greek Full professional
  • German Professional working
  • Italian Limited working

Currently

  • Executive Director of Portfolio and adjunct faculty IE Business School
  • Diasporic narrative and European identity Doctoral research
  • European Union Global Diaspora Facility Member
  • Europeana Network Association Member
Institutions I have worked with or taught for
IE University UNESCO Instituto Cervantes Google

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05Teaching

Business students, humanities questions.

Courses that put graduate students in front of questions the humanities have been asking for two hundred years, then insist they answer them with evidence.

Courses

Globalization, Business and Media. Cross-Cultural Communication. Leading with Diversity. Well-Being in Practice. Human Rights and Social Inclusion. I also coordinate the cross-cultural and globalisation modules across the marketing and communications portfolio.

Method

Case discussion, close reading and lived experience, held to the same standard of evidence. Student ratings sit consistently above 4.5 out of 5. The approach has earned a Teaching Excellence Award and, in 2025 to 2026, a student vote as Best Professor. I also facilitate Google’s #IamRemarkable sessions.

Mentoring

I mentor scholarship holders, first-generation students and early-career professionals through the Turkish Education Foundation and Inspiring Girls. The conversations tend to be about class, identity and belonging at least as much as about applications.

Turkish Education Foundation Inspiring Girls

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06Recognition

Fellowships, boards and awards.

Deniz Torcu receiving the Best Professor award
Best Professor of the 2025 to 2026 academic year, IE Business School, voted by students
  • Best Professor, 2025 to 2026IE Business School, voted by students
  • Rising Talent, 2024Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society
  • Regional DEI Lead and member of the IE Global Women’s BoardInstitutional strategy on gender equity
  • Member, Europeana Network AssociationEU Digital Europe Programme
  • #IamRemarkable facilitatorGoogle
  • Teaching Excellence AwardIE Business School, student evaluations
  • IE Fellows ProgrammeLeadership and impact in higher education
  • TEDx speakerTEDx IE Madrid
  • TEV ScholarTurkish Education Foundation

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Contact

Let’s talk.

I take on keynotes, panels, moderation, editorial commissions, juries and advisory work. The fastest route is a short note with the date, the format and the audience.

I am also open to fellowships and consulting engagements that can run alongside a full-time institutional role.

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