Welcome

I'm a PhD candidate (ABD) at the Linguistics Graduate Program at University of Southern California, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. I am advised by Elsi Kaiser and Travis Major. My research interest is Syntax (theoretical and experimental) and Psycholinguistics with a focus on issues in Turkish. My theoretical interest lies on topics regarding clausal embedding like prolepsis, indexical shift, and perspective shift. In experimental domains, I am interested in interpretation of anaphoric elements and sentence processing.

I am currently a (volunteering) research assistant (RA) at Psycholinguistics of Mono- and Multilingualism Lab (PoMMLab) at USC, working with the principal investigator Zuzanna Fuchs. 

I obtained my MA degree in Linguistics from University of Calgary, in Canada. For my MA thesis, I worked on Raising Structures in Turkish under the supervision of Dennis Ryan Storoshenko. I worked as a Teaching Assistant (TA) for various classes, and as a Research Assistant (RA) at Experimental Syntax Lab at University of Calgary, under the principal investigator Dennis Ryan Storoshenko. 

I got my BA degree in Foreign Language Education (English Language Teaching) at Middle East Technical University (METU), in Turkey, where I discovered my interest in Linguistics!

Current research topics include:

• indexical shift in Turkish/Turkic

• syntax of accusative subjects (aka. ECM) w/ Travis Major

• processing of Turkish reflexive forms kendi vs kendi-si

• predictive processing of case markers in heritage Spanish @PoMMLab

  • Paper

Recent research topics:

• Processing agreement vs concord in Russian w/ Zuzanna Fuchs, Cui Ding, and Ethan Wilcox

  • Paper

• LLMs performance interpreting indexical elements w/ Yavuz Faruk Bakman, Duygu Nur Yaldız, and Yusuf Umut Çiftçi

  • Paper (Turkish Indexicals)

  • Paper (English Indexicals)

• NPI illusions in Turkish w/ Özge Bakay

  • Paper

Other than linguistics, I am interested in some sports like soccer, and motorsports. 

Last updated: September 2, 2026