Campus
- Downtown Toronto (St. George)
Biography
Sumeyra Zehra Akarvardar Koçak is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Toronto’s Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations. She completed her undergraduate degree in Persian Language and Literature and a double major in Philosophy at Istanbul University in 2013, graduating as the top student in her program. She earned her master’s degree in Persian Language and Literature from Istanbul University in 2016 and her PhD in Turkish Language and Literature from Istanbul Medeniyet University in 2023. Her PhD research focused on the edition critique and translation criticism of the second volume of Dervish Hasan Medhi's Terceme-i Shahname-i Ferdowsi.
Her research interests include classical Turkish literature, Turkish translations of the Shahnameh, and manuscript studies. Currently, her postdoctoral research examines the Turkish translations of the Shahnameh produced during the Ottoman period, with a focus on translation theory and the critical evaluation of these translations.
Akarvardar Koçak has some articles and contributed book chapters in the field of classical Turkish literature. She has been awarded a prestigious TUBITAK Postdoctoral Fellowship and has presented her work at various academic conferences.