Recep Can Mert
Recep Can Mert is a doctoral student in the Art History and Archaeology department at Columbia University, currently in his second year. Before joining Columbia, he completed his undergraduate degree with a double major in History at Koç University in Istanbul. During his studies, he participated in the Numismatic School at AKMED in Antalya and studied the Ancient Languages of Anatolia at ANAMED in Beyoğlu. After completing his undergraduate degree under the close supervision of Michael Jones, Inge Uytherhoeven, Kerem Tınaz, and his advisor Ivana Jevtic, Recep Can Mert began his first master’s degree at Bilkent University, where he was supervised by Professor Julian Bennett, along with contributions from Dominique Kassab Tezgör and Peter Talloen under the guidance of Michele Massa.
During his time here, he focused on fieldwork, attending the Nautical Archaeological Institute in Bodrum and studying the Yenikapı and Ottoman shipwrecks. His experiences included participating in excavations at Sagalassos, Labraunda, and Claros. He applied a sensory approach to examine the Oracular Activities at Claros, comparing them to the Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens. This study highlighted the interconnectedness of the three key elements: you, I, and it.
His work was further enhanced by his studies in psychiatry under the guidance of Ausaf Ahmed Faruqi, a neuroscientist at Bilkent University, and Patrick Marius Koga, who welcomed him as a Ulysses Predoctoral Research Scholar at the UC Davis School of Public Health Sciences. This combined experience eventually led him to Columbia University, where, in his first year, he received the Sakıp Sabancı Center David and Catherine Cuthell Summer Fellowship. During this fellowship, he studied Sagalassos and conducted a field study at Çumra/Türkmen Karahüyük under the supervision of Michele Massa and James Osborno; he also joined an expedition with Bilkent and the University of Chicago.
Over the past year, he has presented the Claros case at several conferences. In April, he participated in the Kiel Conference 2025, themed "Sensory Transformations: Tracing Interactions within Archaeological Contexts," where he delivered a presentation titled “The Transformation of Sacred Spaces: A Bottom-Up Perspective on Religious Experience from Hellenistic to Roman Times.”
In June, he received the Emerging Scholar Award at the Fifteenth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society, presenting on “Affluence and the Economy Behind Oracles: An Experiential Study of Klaros - Interplay of Politics, Religion, Economy, and Individual Actors.”
In July, he spoke at the Fikret Muallâ Talks in Eminönü, discussing “Forgery in the New York Art World: Institutional Legitimacy, Financialization, and Simulacra.”
Currently, he is focused on completing his Master of Philosophy requirements while compiling his data. His upcoming presentation at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Society for Classical Studies will be titled “Monetary Networks and Political Shifts: A Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Colophonian and Clarian Coinage.”
Lastly, until his second year at Columbia University, he has been working closely with Professor Ioannis Mylonopoulos while completing his second master’s degree titled “The Politics of Munificence: Elite Identity and Cultural Hegemony in Roman Asia Minor,” under the supervision of Francesco De Angelis. He has taken a wide range of coursework, including Sumerian Sculpture, Numismatics, Civil Engineering in Ancient Rome, Islamic Art, and the contemporary struggles of Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, as well as topics related to AI and Feminist Theory, in order to explore the current state of art in Art History.