Team

Assoc. Prof. Dr Şermin Kalafat is a researcher in the field of Turkish language, specialising in Old Anatolian Turkish, Turkish scientific language in early modern Ottoman mathematical and astronomical manuscripts, terminological ontologies, and the history of nineteenth-century Ottoman-period Turkish lexicography. Since 2020, her work has expanded towards digital philology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing for historical Turkic languages, and cultural heritage data science.

Kalafat completed her PhD in Turkish Language at Bursa Uludağ University in 2015. Her doctoral research on an Ottoman mathematical text from the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Lawgiver brings together a multi-witness comparative critical edition, philological analysis, terminological study, grammatical-contextual indexing, and mathematical interpretation. This work was published in 2020 by the Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in the Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures series.

From 2010 to 2015, Kalafat worked as a Research Assistant at Bursa Uludağ University. In 2015–2016, she served as a Turkish Language Instructor at the Yunus Emre Institute London Turkish Cultural Centre. She then worked as an academic staff member at İstanbul Medeniyet University from 2016 to 2024. Her associate professorship study, published by Kesit Publications in 2019, presents an emended edition, philological analysis and a new terminological analysis model for Türkî Hisâb, a mathematical work written in Old Anatolian Turkish. In 2020, Kalafat was awarded the title of Associate Professor in Turkish Language by the Interuniversity Council.

Focusing particularly on the nineteenth-century lexicographical tradition within the history of Ottoman-period Turkish lexicography, Kalafat identified the fourth volume of J. W. Redhouse’s lost Turkish dictionary in 2015 and Jean Deny’s previously unknown comprehensive Turkish dictionary in 2017. In 2021, she defined a new function of the ol demonstrative adjective in Old Anatolian Turkish and conceptualised this function as the pseudo article®.

Since 2020, Kalafat has turned towards digital humanities, digital leadership, software development, machine learning, cultural heritage data science, artificial intelligence, RAG/LLM-based information retrieval, terminological ontology modelling, knowledge graph modelling, AI agents, and generative AI in order to expand her research in philology, terminology, and historical Turkic languages through digital methods. During this process, she completed various training and applied programmes offered by Infotech Academy, Harvard, Galatasaray University, Cambridge Digital Humanities, TÜBİTAK-EuroCC Serbia, TOTh, IBM, Neo4j GraphAcademy, DeepLearning.AI, and AWS Skill Builder.

In 2023, she was awarded the TÜBİTAK 2219 International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, and between 2024 and 2025 she was a visiting researcher at Cambridge Digital Humanities, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Caroline Bassett. During this period, she led REDMOS: Redhouse’s Cosmos, a digital monographic case study that examines J. W. Redhouse’s lexicographical practices, archival traces, and intellectual networks through digital methods.

Kalafat has continued her work as an independent scholar since 2024. She is the founding director of Digital Turcology and Cultural Heritage. In 2026, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship. With this support, she will conduct her project, GEOP-AI: The Geometry of Power: Ottoman Scientific Supradiscourse through AI-Enhanced Analysis of Mathematical and Astronomical Manuscripts (1450–1600), hosted by the Institute for the History of Knowledge in the Ancient World within the Department of History and Cultural Studies at Freie Universität Berlin.

Yusuf Kılıç is an early-career researcher working in the field of Turkish language. He graduated from the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Istanbul Medeniyet University in 2025 with high honours and as the top-ranking student in his department. During his undergraduate studies, he completed his pedagogical formation training and, in 2024, received a certificate in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language.

Kılıç’s research interests focus on the study of historical and contemporary Turkish language materials through artificial intelligence, computational methods and cultural heritage approaches. Since his secondary school years, he has sought to bring together his technical experience in software and hardware with his academic interest in Turkish language and cultural heritage research.

In 2024, he completed Digital Leadership training at the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Centre of Galatasaray University; in 2025, he followed the University of Oxford’s open-access digital humanities courses. He is currently continuing his training through the digital humanities module of the Data Analysis School organised by the Council of Higher Education, together with IBM cybersecurity and AWS AI & ML training programmes.

As Platform and Research Coordinator at DTCH, Kılıç contributes to the platform’s digital infrastructure, website, content structure and technical operations. He supports the coordination between research activities and digital implementation processes, contributing to the development of the platform’s sustainable online presence.

Şeyma Nur Akkaş is a researcher working in the fields of Turkish language and linguistics. She completed her undergraduate studies in the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Istanbul Medeniyet University in 2022. Her undergraduate thesis focused on reduplications in Redhouse’s Lexicon; in the same year, she received a certificate in Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language. Between 2023 and 2024, she worked as a Turkish teacher at Atabey Educational Institutions.

Akkaş completed her master’s degree at the Institute of Turkic Studies, Marmara University. She defended her thesis, entitled “Motivational and Emotional Markers in Turkish: Interjections”, in 2025 under the supervision of Prof. Dr Özlem Deniz Yılmaz. Her master’s research focused on interjections in Turkish, linguistic motivation, emotional markers, and semantic-pragmatic functions.

Her current research direction focuses on the use of digital humanities, computational methods and data-based analytical approaches in Turkish language and linguistics studies. She is currently continuing her training in the digital humanities module of the Data Analysis School organised by the Council of Higher Education, and is preparing for doctoral research along a line of inquiry that examines linguistic materials through digital methods.

At DTCH, Akkaş serves as Social Media Coordinator and Researcher, contributing to the platform’s social media content, digital visibility, and research activities.

Dr Kaan Üçsu’s work focuses on the history of science, with particular emphasis on the history of translation, knowledge circulation, the history of cartography, and historical geographic information systems. His research is especially shaped around the contextualisation of early modern scientific materials, the circulation of scientific knowledge across geographies, and the modelling of historical data through digital methods. Üçsu is developing a research line that connects the history of science with digital methods and cultural heritage data science.

Üçsu began his academic path in the history of science at İstanbul University in 2012 and was admitted to the Researcher Training Project of the Centre for Islamic Studies in 2013. Since 2014, he has been working as a research assistant in the Department of the History of Science, Faculty of Letters, İstanbul University. He completed his PhD in 2024 with a thesis on the Turkish translation of Atlas Maior, the monumental seventeenth-century work.

Bringing approaches from the history of science together with digital methods, Üçsu works particularly on the visualisation of historical data through digital mapping and on the modelling of the geographical circulation of scientific knowledge using ArcGIS-based spatial analysis tools. This approach lies at the centre of his research orientation, which examines early modern and modern scientific heritage from a digital perspective.

Üçsu serves as assistant editor and section editor of Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları, published by İstanbul University. He has also taken part in several international projects, including The Modernisation of Ottoman Cartography and the EU–Türkiye Anatolian Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Institute projects.

His current research examines the positions of the Ottoman and Spanish empires on the international scientific stage within a comparative framework. Having been awarded the TÜBİTAK 2219 International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Üçsu will conduct his postdoctoral research through the project Empire, Science, and Prestige: The Ottoman and Spanish Presence on the International Scientific Stage, 1860s–1914.

Dr Kaan Üçsu contributes to DTCH research activities in the fields of history of science, history of cartography, historical geographic information systems and cultural heritage data science.

Eleni Kapoula is an education and organisational specialist working across learning and development, operational systems, workforce transformation, learning experience design, people operations, high-volume workflows, automation, and inclusive learning environments.

Kapoula is currently based in the United Kingdom, where she works at Canterbury Christ Church University as an Academic Operations Lead. In this role, she contributes to academic operations, student success, student retention, programme delivery, and structured learning support within higher education. Between 2015 and 2023, she worked in Türkiye as an English teacher at Oğuz Kağan College, gaining extensive experience in language education, classroom learning processes, student development, and intercultural learning environments.

Kapoula is the founder of the Meraki Framework, a human-centred methodological framework that brings together strategic intuition, learning architecture, human-centred operations, and the development of scalable systems without compromising quality. Her professional interests include AI-supported learning and operational processes, people analytics, neurodiversity-aware inclusive systems, learner success, and the design of scalable educational and organisational workflows.

Kapoula completed her undergraduate degree in Turkish and Modern Asian Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2008. This education provided an academic foundation in linguistics, area studies, the Turkish language, and intercultural contexts. She has also completed a range of qualifications in language teaching and assessment, including Cambridge CELTA, Cambridge English Young Learners assessment training, TEFL Institute of Professional Development – TEFL for Young Learners Professional Certification/Specialization, and the Yunus Emre Institute Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language certificate. This background connects her expertise in learning design and programme delivery with language education, intercultural communication, and Turkish cultural studies.

Kapoula’s professional development portfolio includes certifications and training in AI-supported strategic operations, business process automation, project management, human resources analytics, people management, generative AI, and learning and development. Her training includes AI Skills for Strategic Operations, Microsoft Power Platform: Business Value & Strategy, Automating Business Processes with Power Automate, PRINCE2 Foundation, AI Agents & Enterprise Solutions, Generative AI Fundamentals, CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management, Human Resources Analytics, and Learning and Development.

Within DTCH, Eleni Kapoula contributes to academic operations, programme development, learning experience design and capacity-building activities. Her role supports the development of accessible, inclusive and AI-aware learning processes across DTCH activities.

Eren Zengin is a research software engineer working across computer science, research software, embedded systems, interactive applications, and user-centred digital interfaces. He is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science at Avans University Breda. Through individual and team-based projects, he has gained experience in mobile application development, 2D planetary simulations, 2D and 3D multiplayer game programming, custom game engine development, hardware interfacing, and AI-supported imaging systems.

His technical skill set includes programming languages such as Java, C#, C, C++, Python, and VHDL/Verilog, alongside modern software development tools and methodologies including Git, Unity, Scrum, Agile, and Jira. His project experience includes a fruit and vegetable quality sorting system using hyperspectral imaging and AI, robotic bomb detection and disposal systems, multiplayer game applications, simulation-based software development, and custom game engine design.

His professional experience spans different applied fields requiring a high degree of technical precision. During his internship at Roketsan, he gained experience in FPGA programming for electronic fuze systems used in rocket technology, contributing to defence-grade embedded systems development. During his internship at Brabant Water, he designed and developed an augmented reality-based interactive HoloLens application to train and guide field technicians in real time. These experiences have strengthened his technical background in real-time hardware–software interaction, interactive system design, and applied software development.

Within DTCH, Eren Zengin contributes to research software engineering, technical infrastructure development, interactive interface design and AI-supported application components.