Koç University

Koç University (KU), founded in 1993, is a non-profit private university in Istanbul, Turkey, offering a world class educational experience to 6.331 students from over 50 countries with more than 400 faculty members. In the twenty-two years since its establishment, Koç University has become one of the leading universities in Turkey. With more than 200 partners globally, 18 Research Centers, 3 Research and Education Forums and 104 laboratories, Koç University is recognized nationally and internationally as an excellent partner for research collaboration at national and international level with public and private institutions including the European Commission. It has carried out over 400 sponsored research projects in the last ten years that amount to over 50 Million USD in funding.  The university provides an English taught liberal arts education at undergraduate level through 7 colleges, offering 22 undergraduate programs. At graduate level it is a research intensive university with 30 master and 23 doctoral programs across 4 graduate schools . The College of Social Sciences and humanities is a challenging part of Koç University proposing a wide range of BA, MA and PhD programs, from Archaeology to English Literature passing for Media and Visual Arts, Philosophy and Sociology. Koç University will lead WP 3 and WP 5. The role of KU will be to work side by side with the respective trainee to create the courses syllabi, to develop new teaching courses, to activate new internship programs and to develop learning materials. Furthermore, given its strategic position KU will function as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East it can easily manage any bureaucratic issues. In addition, KU has developed the best syllabi and learning materials among the EU partners and it has experience on internship programs.

For more info visit the Koç University website https://cssh.ku.edu.tr/en/.

Çiğdem Maner is Assistant Professor at Koç University Department of Archaeology and History of Art. In 2011 she completed her PhD at Heidelberg University on a comparison of Hittite and Mycenaean fortification architecture. She is interested in the Bronze – Iron Ages of Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. Since 2013 she is the director of the KEYAR survey project, which systematically surveys the southeastern corner of the Konya plain. She is co-directing together with Dr. Federico Zaina (Univ. of Bologna) and Dr. Alaa al Lami (Univ. of Kufa) the Land of Kufa Survey Project in Kufa, Iraq (2019-ongoing). Furthermore she is the assistant director of the Kaman Kalehöyük excavations led by the Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology. She received several grants and honors and is part of EU projects such as Waladu Erasmus+ Capacity Building KA2 project (2016-2019) and Banuu Erasmus+ Capacity Building KA2 project (2020-2023). She has published one monography, edited four books and is the author of more than forty articles and book chapters.

Filiz Yenisehiroglu is Professor of Art History at Koç University Department of Archaeology and History of Art. Her main field of research and publications are on Ottoman Architecture, Ottoman Cities and Ottoman Ceramics. Previously she was the Founding Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts at Başkent University and before that she has worked 28 years at History of Art Department of Hacettepe University. She was a Fellow od Oriental Studies Facultu of Cambridge University in UK between 1995-1998 and also thought various courses in USA,France and Russia. She has been  a member of EU Projects on Art History and Conservation in 1996,2001 and  2003 Since 2014, she is also the Director of Vekam. Koç University Vehbi Koç Ankara Studies Research Center in Ankara.  She has recently curated the organization of a new Museum in İstanbul, Tekfur Palace Musuem that was opened in June 2019. She has edited, authored, co-authored and edited more than 10 books, and she has written more than fifty articles and book chapters.

Burcu Sarsilmaz is the Director of the Office of International Programs at Koç University, Istanbul. She specializes in international partnership & project development and study abroad programs. She also oversees the international community services at Koç University. She is an advocate for the internationalization of young research universities. Burcu has previously held several International Sales & Marketing and Executive Education Coordination positions at multinational companies. She holds a BA degree in Economics at Koc University and earned a MA degree in International Business at Monash University, Australia.

Oya Özer Kurt is Global Programs and Projects Specialist at the Office of International Programs at Koç University since 2019. She supervises and manages the administrative workload of Erasmus+ KA2 projects, prepares short term programs and adds to the internationalization efforts of Koç University that are run by the Office of International Programs. She studied Social and Political Sciences (BA) and European Studies (MA) at Sabancı University (BA) and East Asian Studies at University of Warwick (MA).

Nikos D. Kontogiannis is Assistant Professor at the Department of Archaeology and History of Art, Koç University, Istanbul. He specializes in the study of Byzantine material culture, and his publications focus mainly on military and domestic architecture, ceramics and minor objects, industrial production and commercial networks in the Eastern Mediterranean. Having studied at the Universities of Athens (GR) and Birmingham (GB), he worked for ca. 15 years at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture dealing with rescue excavations, museum exhibitions, restoration projects, and management of historical monuments.  He currently serves as Vice-Director of the Koç University - Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies. His ongoing projects include the publication of excavation material ranging from the 4^th to the 15^th centuries, as well as the study of two extensive hoards at the British Museum (GB) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (USA).

Oğuz Tekin is Professor of Archaeology and History of Art at Koç University and is also Director of Suna & İnan Kıraç Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED). He specializes in ancient numismatics and balance weights. He is the editor of the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Turkey and the Corpus Ponderum Antiquorum et Islamicorum projects.