The Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations (NMC) is pleased to welcome Dr. Odette Boivin as Assistant Professor of Assyriology, Dr. Oren Yirmiya as Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Dr. Gözde Mercan as Assistant Professor of Turkish Language and Professor Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani as Associate Professor in the fields of Women Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.
Assistant Professor Odette Boivin received her PhD from University of Toronto in 2016 and held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in NMC from 2016 to 2019. She was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (NYU) from 2019 to 2021 and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institut für Altorientalistik und Vorderasiatische Archäologie, University of Münster, from 2021 to 2025. She is a member of the European Research Council (ERC) project 'Governance in Babylon’ and pursues research on Mesopotamian history in the first millennium BCE and on unpublished cuneiform texts from Babylon. Her teaching and research experience spans Bronze Age and Iron Age Mesopotamia.
Assistant Professor Oren Yirmiya received his BA and MA degrees in comparative literature from Tel Aviv University and his PhD from the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley in 2024. He was a research fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor from 2024-2025. His research and teaching interests are modern Hebrew literature, especially from a Mizrahi perspective and with expertise in poetry from the 19th century to the present day. Professor Yirmiya is cross appointed with the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies (ATCJS).
Assistant Professor Gözde Mercan received her PhD from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara (METU) in 2012. She completed her postdoctoral research project on Turkish bilingualism at the Centre for Multilingualism in Society Across the Lifespan at the University of Oslo. Professor Mercan’s research centers on how learners of Turkish as a foreign, second, additional, or heritage language understand and produce Turkish words and sentences. Professor Mercan has been teaching Turkish language courses as well as courses related to Turkish literature, TV, cinema, media, and communication in NMC since 2020.
Associate Professor Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani is an interdisciplinary scholar whose areas of specialization encompass feminist theories in relation to continental and transnational contexts; critical theories of women’s movements in the Middle East; digital activism; gender and ethics of non-violence; and contemporary history of social and political thought. She received her PhD from York University in 2006 and is currently Associate Professor at UTM (Historical Studies). She will hold her Graduate Appointment in NMC starting with the academic year 2025-2026.