Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (VAVCD) 2005 alumni Hande Çayır published her first academic book in the United States by Vernon Press.
The cover photo for Hande Çayır’s book “Documentary as Autoethnography: A Case Study Based on the Changing Surnames of Women” published in the Anthropology series of Vernon Press was taken by Sabancı University VAVCD 2004 graduate artist Ege Kanar.
The subject of the study is women's surnames changing with marriage and divorce, and the book is centered on Hande Çayır’s 2012 documentary “Yok Anasının Soyadı/Mrs. His Name”, which has been shown in festivals.
Hande Çayır states that she believes surnames to bear a message like first names do, and should be a matter of the individual's own choice. The book is divided into five chapters dealing with women's changing surnames, the methodology of autoethography, which lets people do academic research based on their own story, documentaries, feminist theory, and communication channels used to bring the documentary to the audience.
The book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, YBP, EBSCO, ProQuest, Bowker Books in Print, Nielsen Pubweb and IngramContent.