Core Program is Ready for the New Term

Kadir Has University Core Program (Department of Core Academics) strengthens its academic staff with new instructors. We are delighted and proud to introduce our new colleagues.

Dr. Ceren ABİ, Visiting Academic Member

Ceren Abi is a historian of the modern Middle East and studies cultural heritage in times of armed conflict. She also works on urban history, material and visual culture, and minorities in the Middle East and North Africa. She has a Ph.D. in History from UCLA. She has received her Master’s degree in European History from Leiden University (via Europeaum Program with Paris I, Sorbonne, and Oxford University). She taught courses on the Middle East and North African history, cultural heritage, humanities, and world history at UCLA and Boğaziçi University. Her recent publications include articles on the history of archaeology in the Ottoman Empire and interactions between the occupiers and the occupied during the post-First World War period in the Middle East.

Dr. Nuray SÖĞÜNMEZ ERDOĞAN, Instructor

Nuray Söğünmez Erdoğan completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at Boğaziçi University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics; and her Ph.D. studies at Kadir Has University, Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics. She was a TÜBİTAK BİDEB 2211 / C National Prioritized Areas Ph.D. Scholar between 2016-2020. As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked on the deconvolution of complex biological systems at Kadir Has University. She has played several national and international roles in medicine and health. She has been published in many international journals on pediatric and adult spinal diseases and their treatment methods and computational biology of the receptors.

Ahmet ERGENÇ, Visiting Lecturer

After graduating from the English Literature Department of Istanbul University, he received his MA degree at the American Literature Department of the same university; currently, he pursues his Ph.D. studies. He writes critical texts on literature, cinema, and visual arts. He also works as an editor and translator for various publishing houses and lectures on literature, contemporary art, and critical theory at multiple institutions. He is interested in critical theory, continental philosophy, comparative literature, modern Turkish literature, historiography, memory studies, and urban studies. He is also a member of AICA Turkey.

Dr. Dan GOLDENBERG, Visiting Lecturer

Dan Goldenberg completed his Ph.D. at the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies (Tel Aviv University), entitled “Medieval Ethnography: A Comparative Analysis of Ethnographic Descriptions from the 11th – 13th Centuries”, in 2010, following his MA degree in Medieval History (Cum Laude) and BA in History and Geography from the same university. Since 2013, he has taught a wide range of courses at Bilkent University (Ankara) and MEF University (Istanbul), such as History of Civilization, History of the Middle East, History of Britain, and Cultural encounters Medieval Art and Architecture. In 2019, he received his CELTA certificate and had taught English at different age groups and sectors, such as Oil & Gas Industry, Tourism, Textile, and Banking) and different levels from primary to advanced English. In addition, Dan Goldenberg is interested in the history of geography and cartography, the history of travel, and the history of the Mongol Empire.

Elif ÖZGÜNGÖR KOZAK, Visiting Lecturer

Elif Özgüngör Kozak received her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Eastern Mediterranean University in 2004, her Master’s degree in Information Technology at Bahçeşehir University in 2013. She continues her Ph.D. studies in Management Information System at Kadir Has University. Between 2004 and 2013, she worked as an auditor in ING Bank, as a System Analyst in ING Bank and A&T Bank. Afterward, she designed and gave Coding and Robotics training courses with the CodeRobi brand she founded as an entrepreneur. Her primary fields of study are data mining, machine learning, anomaly detection, and anti-money laundering.

Dr. Fırat KURT, Visiting Academic Member

Fırat Kurt is a political anthropologist working on political mobilization, economic infrastructures, and religious pragmatics. He was previously a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University (2020-2021) and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Polonsky Academy for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He has a Ph.D. in Anthropology (2018, Columbia University); MA in Sociology (2008, Boğaziçi University); BA in Political Science (2005, Boğaziçi University).

Dr. Müge ÖZBEK, Visiting Lecturer

Dr. Müge Özbek received her Ph.D. in Modern Turkish History from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul (2018). In the 2018-2019 academic year, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul. In 2019-2020, she was a visiting scholar in the History Department at Binghamton University. Her research focuses on gender, female labor, and I’m/mobility in the late Ottoman Empire. Her articles appeared in various Turkish and English edited volumes and academic journals, including Middle Eastern Studies. Özbek is currently working on a book manuscript titled “Precarious Moves, Precarious Lives: Poor and Working Women on Their Own in Late Ottoman Istanbul (1850-1914)”.

Dr. Çimen ÖZGÜÇ ÖNAL, Instructor

Dr. Çimen Özgüç Önal received her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at Boğaziçi University in 2018; where she had previously obtained her BSc and MSc degrees also in the Department of Chemistry. Her main research topics include photochemical reactions, organic synthesis, polymer synthesis, and characterizations. Part of her MSc and Ph.D. studies have been published in international academic journals. She has participated in poster presentations in the IUPAC World Polymer Congress and American Chemical Society; and also in National Chemistry Congress. As a Teaching Assistant, she worked in Boğaziçi University Department of Chemistry between 2007 and 2015. She worked as a part-time Instructor in Istanbul Bilgi University Genetics and Bioengineering Undergraduate Program between 2019 and 2021, and in the MEF University Faculty of Engineering Undergraduate Program in 2020-2021 as a lecturer in General Chemistry and General Chemistry Laboratory courses.

Ahmet Sertaç ÖZTÜRK, Visiting Lecturer

Ahmet Sertaç Öztürk graduated from the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) in 1999. In 2004, his interest in production methods and materials led him to attend İTU Department of Industrial Product Design. He received a Master’s degree focusing on the customization of industrial design and the field research focusing on “dolmuş.” Since 2005, he has lectured on design and production methods in many universities such as Istanbul Technical University, Kadir Has University, and Bilgi University. He coordinates project studios and held workshops on electro-mechanical sculpturing and blacksmithing. He established hayalbilim in 2006, a design, architecture, and art lab that focuses on imagining and development (I & D), hayalbilim embraces innovative production methods and materials. His works are exhibited in different international art and technology festivals such as Todaysart 2012, The Hague Netherlands ve Amber’10, Amber’12, Mamut Art 2018 Istanbul Turkey. During the COVID pandemic in March-April 2020, Öztürk and his students established a home-based production network and produced 7000 pieces of the face shield in one month and distributed them to hospitals in need free-of-charge all around Turkey, with the generous support of our sponsors.

Dr. Ayşegül POMAKOĞLU, Visiting Lecturer

Dr. Ayşegül Pomakoğlu received her bachelor’s degrees in Turkish Language and Literature, and History at Boğaziçi University in 2010. She received both her Master’s degree and doctoral degree in Old Turkish Literature at Boğaziçi University, respectively, in 2013 and 2020. Dr. Pomakoğlu, whose primary fields of study are historiographic fiction, Ottoman prose, and genre-style analysis, has lectured part-time at Boğaziçi University and İstanbul Galata University in 2020-2021. She has also been carrying on her publishing activities as a translator with various publishers since 2013.

Dr. Tuğba SEVİNÇ, Visiting Lecturer

Dr. Tuğba Sevinç received her bachelor’s degree in economics at İstanbul University in 2004, her Master’s degree in philosophy at Boğaziçi University in 2008, and her doctoral degree in philosophy at Boğaziçi University in 2015. Her main research areas are social and political philosophy, gender theory, ethics, and logic. She has worked as an adjunct faculty at Boğaziçi University and Bahçeşehir University since 2017. Her recent article titled “Three Approaches to Social Unity and Solidarity” was published in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

Dr. Nurseli Yeşim SÜNBÜLOĞLU, Visiting Academic Member

Dr. Nurseli Yeşim Sünbüloğlu completed her MA in Gender Studies at Central European University and her Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Sussex (UK) with her thesis entitled “Politics of the Rehabilitation of Disabled Veterans: Masculinity, the Body and Militarism in Turkey.” She has published articles and chapters focusing on masculinities, disability, militarism, and nationalism. She is the editor of a book in Turkish entitled Erkek Millet, Asker Millet: Türkiye’de Militarizm, Milliyetçilik, Erkek(lik)ler [Militarism, Nationalism, and Men/Masculinities in Turkey] (İletişim Publishing, 2013). She is a member of the Initiative for Critical Studies of Masculinities (ICSM), based in Turkey, and the editorial board of a peer-reviewed bilingual journal, Masculinities: A Journal of Culture and Society. She was the coordinator of a gender project entitled “Educational Manual on Gender-Based Violence with a Critical Masculinity Studies Perspective,” funded by the Swedish Consulate General in İstanbul. She worked at Özyeğin University as a gender equality expert between 2018-2021.