Ercan, Ayşe

Columbia University

Research Title: Fashioning a Medieval Capital: The Topography And Archaeology of the Mangana Quarter in Constantinople (843–1453 C.E.)

Ms. Ercan is a PhD candidate at Columbia University, Department of Art History and Archaeology. She holds a BA in Archaeology from Istanbul University (2007) and a MA in Art History and Archaeology from Koç University, Istanbul (2010). Her master’s dissertation provided the first historical account of one of the Byzantine harbors in Constantinople (the Harbor of Theodosius) in Yenikapı, Istanbul through a critical study of the recent archaeological excavations conducted by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Prior to entering Columbia’s PhD program with a Fulbright fellowship, she participated in various archaeological excavations, academic programs, and conferences organized by Dumbarton Oaks, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and subsequently by CNRS& IAE, and University of Vienna- Institut für Byzantinistik und Neogräzistik. Her PhD dissertation focuses on the Mangana Quarter in Constantinople, being one of the most significant, albeit the most understudied, building complexes of Medieval Constantinople. Taking a fresh and critical approach to the study of the Mangana Quarter, her research seeks to redefine and re-contextualize an urban landscape in consideration of a broader historical narrative concurrent with wider sociopolitical and religious dynamics in the Byzantine Empire. While in residence at ANAMED, she aims to complete the archival research and conduct fieldwork for her PhD dissertation, which will shed light on the historiography and archaeology of the Mangana neighborhood, in addition to introducing new perspectives to the study of other Byzantine remains in Istanbul.