Congratulations, 2025-26 CMES Graduates!

May 29, 2026

CMES is pleased to congratulate this year's graduating students in our AM and joint PhD programs.

AM Graduates

Arda Aslan
Ida Beckett—Thesis: "'They Burnt My Beloved as If He Were Wood': The Origins, Treatment, and Entangled Characters of Coffee and Tobacco in Early Modern Ottoman History and Poetry" / Advisor: Cemal Kafadar
Doğa Çınar—Thesis: "The Invention of 'Harmful' Antiquities: Ottoman Officials' Negotiation over the Armenian Inscriptions of the Church Mosque of Tarsus" / Advisors: Christina Maranci, Himmet Taskomur / CMES Thesis Prize
Mehmet Durmaz—Thesis: "Bounded Labor: Ideational Adaptation and Union Strategy in Turkey, 1980-1994" / Advisor: Ben Ross Schneider
Julia Kempton—Thesis: "Women, the Internet, and Civil Rights in Tunisia" / Advisor: Laura Anne Thompson
Taehun Kim
Kate Muntzner —Thesis: "Prophet vs. Profit: State-Curated and the Reconfiguration of Religious Authority in Saudi Arabia Under Vision 2030" / Advisor: Sultan Alamer
Evrim Polat—Thesis: "How a Neutral Technology Produces Institutional Control: Algorithmic Governance and the Erosion of Professional Autonomy in Turkish Healthcare" Advisors: Daron Acemoglu, Steve Levitsky
Ji Qi
Guanyu Shao—Thesis: "The Alchemy of Ideas and Languages: Sukhan in Late-Eleventh Century Persian Books of Counsel" / Advisor: Himmet Taskomur

Tuğrul Acar
History of Art and Architecture and MES
Dissertation: "The Shrine of Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) and Early Mevlevi Architecture in Anatolia (ca. 1273-1520): Architectural Networks and Patronage"
Advisor: Gülru Necipoğlu / Committee: David Roxburgh, Cemal Kafadar, Sara Nur Yildiz Arslan
Damla Özakay
History of Art and Architecture and MES
Dissertation: "Centralizing the Local: The Architecture of Death, Hospitality, Devotion, and Water in Amasya, c. 1209-1510"
Advisor: Gülru Necipoğlu / Committee: David Roxburgh, Cemal Kafadar, Çiğdem Kafescioğlu