2010-2011 Fellows

The Turkish Cultural Foundation has awarded 15 scholars with its Fellowship in Turkish Culture and Art for 2010.

The TCF Fellowship Program was launched in 2007 and offers fellowships for Ph.D. candidates working on a dissertation related to Turkish culture and art and for scholars to pursue post-doctoral studies in the same area. Since its launch, 38 scholars have been awarded the TCF Fellowship.

The TCF Fellowship is designed to support scholarship and publications on Turkish culture and art with the goal to increase knowledge on Turkey’s cultural heritage in Turkey and around the world.

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWS

Elif Keser Kayaalp
Ph.D. in Archaeology, University of Oxford (Exeter College), UK (2009)
Current Position: Senior Fellow at Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Turkey
"Analysis of Syrian Orthodox Architectural Heritage in the Tur Abdin for Conservation and Restoration"

Kayhan Orbay
Ph.D. Department of Türkologie, Vienna University, Austria (2007)
Current Position: Lecturer, Department of History, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
"Rural and Urban Economy in the Balkans (Late 16th Early 17th Centuries): Financial Administration of the Imperial Waqfs in Edirne"

Mine Ovacik Dortbas
Ph.D. Department of Industrial Design, Mimar Sinan University, Turkey (2002)
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Izmir University of Economics
"Bathing Clogs: From Traditional Turkish Bath to Present

Neyran Fatma Turan
Doctor of Design, Architecture and Urbanism, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design, USA (2009)
Current Position: Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Rice University, USA
"Geographic Istanbul: Episodes in the History of a City’s Relationship with its Landscape and Territory"

Nukhet Varlik
Ph.D. Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, USA (2008)
Current Position: Assistant Professor Department of History, James Madison University, USA
"Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600"

DISSERTATION RESEARCH FELLOWS

Burcu Karahan Richardson
Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Literature with an intensive minor in Turkish Studies, Indiana University, USA
"Novels of Ill Repute: The Second Constitutional Era Erotic Literature"

Burcak Ozlidil Altin
Ph.D. Candidate, Urban Systems, Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (Joint Ph.D. Program), USA
"Healing Spaces: Mental Institutions in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1870-1930"

Can Turhan Yalçinkaya
Ph.D. Candidate, Media, Music and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University, Australia
"Modes of Melancholy and Excess in Turkish Film and Popular Music: 1996-2009"

Dimitrios Loupis
Ph.D. Candidate, Ottoman History, Center for Middle Eastern Studies & Department of History, Harvard University, USA
"Applying Ottoman Rule in the Balkans: Architecture, Waqf, and Early Ottoman City Formation under the Evrenos Family, 14th-15th Centuries"

Elif Bayraktar Tellan
Ph.D. Candidate, History, Bilkent University, Turkey
"The Role of the Greek Patriarchate of Istanbul vis-à-vis the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries"

Emrah Sahin
Ph.D. Candidate, History, McGill University, Canada
"Transatlantic Crossings: American and Ottoman Perceptions in a Progressive Age, 1880-1910"

Hasan Colak
Ph.D. Candidate, Ottoman Studies, University of Birmingham, UK
"Ottoman legacy in the Middle East re-visited: Ottoman policies towards the Orthodox"

Harun Yeni
Ph.D. Candidate, Ottoman History, Bilkent University, Turkey
"The Yörük Population and Changing Demographic Features of the Ottoman Southeastern Macedonia (from mid-15th c. to early 17th c.)"

Zeynep Helvaci
Ph.D. Candidate, Musicology, Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg, Institute for Music Research Germany
"Ancient Musical Instruments in Asia Minor”

Ekin Emine Tusalp
Ph.D. Candidate, Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University
"The Kings of the State of Meaning and Discourse: The Ottoman Scribal Service in the late 17th Century”

Observations by our 2010-2011 Fellows