#  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

## PhD Graduates

- **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

   ![CMES commencement reception, May 2025](/sites/g/files/omnuum9116/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/2026-05/Commence-2026.jpg?itok=4xumlmvD) 

 

CMES commencement reception, May 2026

 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ CMES News ](/news-type/cmes-news)
- [ Student News ](/news-type/student-news)
- [ 2025-26 ](/academic-year/2025-26)
 
 

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