Emine Esra Nalbant

CONTACT

esranalbant7@gmail.com
enalban1@binghamton.edu

Full CV
LinkedIn

Emine Esra Nalbant is a Ph.D. candidate in the Art History Department at Binghamton University. Her dissertation examines the nineteenth-century boom in lighthouse construction and its connections to port building and maritime infrastructure networks in the Ottoman Empire. Her research interests span lighthouse technology, maritime transportation, and coastal ecologies.

Bosphorus 2021, photograph taken by me

Education

Exchange Programs
-with Erasmus Scholarship

Binghamton University SUNY
PhD in Art History
August 2021-Ongoing

Bogazici University
M.A in History
September 2017 – July 2021
Middle East Technical University
B.C.P. in City and Regional Planning with Minor in Architecture September 2012 –June 2017

University of Roma Tre
Spring 2015

Polytechnic University of Milan
Fall 2016

Employment

Binghamton University SUNY

Research Assistant
Ottoman Demographic, Social, and Family History Research Group at Binghamton University’s Center for Middle East and North Africa Studies
July 2024-August 2025

Instructor of the course: Architecture for Everyone
Summer 2024 & Winter2025

Teaching Assistant, Courses: Introduction to Architecture, Introduction to Visual Culture Introduction to Art History, Art and Science from Aristotle to Instagram
August 2021-May2024

SALT Research- Galata

Research Assistant for the archival work at Reşat Ekrem Koçu Istanbul Encyclopedia Project
January 2020- May 2021

Erytrae Archeological Excavation Site

Documentation work of the Theatre plan and wall sections as excavation architect June-August2018

DAMPO Planning Office

Internship as City Planner, Housing Analysis October2016-June2017

Scholarships and Awards (Selected)

Istanbul Research Institute Academic Activity Award
2025

Yale University Beinecke Library Research Fellowship for Graduate Students 2025

American Research Institute in Turkey from the Friends of ARIT in memory of Dr. John Freely 2025

Lieberman Award 2024

Barbara Abou-El-Haj Graduate Research Award 2024

Scott Opler Graduate Scholar Fellowship 2023

Skills

MS Office
AutoCad
Adobe Photoshop CS6
ArcGIS

Spoken Languages
Turkish (native)
English (fluent), Italian(intermediate), German(beginner)
French (pre-intermediate)

Reading Languages
French (Advanced)
Ottoman Turkish (intermediate)

Exhibitions

MIGRATING PROVERBS TATE MODERN
22-27 May 2018, London UK
- curated by Catalina Pollak Willamson & Reem Chariff under workshop: WHO ARE WE? ART MIGRATION AND THE PRODUCTION OF DEMOCRACY

Workshops

Challenging Eternity
15-25 April 2019, Rome Italy
Area Sacra of Torre Argentina –Area analysis & design proposal Hosted in KNIR (Royal Netherland Institute in Rome)

The Architecture of the Contemporary Public Space
14-17 November 2016,Milan Italy

Fragmented City: Milan
Group work
Runner; David Graham Shane from Colombia GSAPP

Bosphorus 2021, photograph taken by me

Last Updated 24.10.31

TIMELINE OF WORKS | Conferences | Invited Talks | Workshops |

^{Ahırkapı Lighthouse taken by Pelin Yurdadön with France 3 team}

MOST RECENT

November 2025
Archival work at Istanbul as American Research Institute in Turkey Fellow

UPCOMING

2026

May 2026
7th International Conference of the Mediterranean Maritime History Network

June 2026
9th EAHN International Conference Aarhus Denmark
Session Organizer: "Frontiers: Kinetics of Expulsion, Expansion, and Contestation"

Messina Henry Duncan Grant watercolor sketchbooks and scrapbooks 1867-1888 GEN MSS 611 Yale Archives

PAST

2025

2024

November 2025
Archival work at Istanbul as American Research Institute in Turkey Fellow

September 2025
Broadcast appearance story about the Michel-Collas company lighthouses on the program; MEDITERRANEO-Marius Michel modernisa les phares de l’Empire ottoman; à la rencontre du monde méditerranéen by France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur"

July-August 2025
Research at Yale University Beinecke Library and Yale British Art Archives as Graduate Student Fellow of Beinecke Rare Books and Libraries Graduate Student Fellowship

July 2025
Global Urban History Project Conference, Urban Maritime Domains panel as speaker; “Late Ottoman Lighthouses: Making of a Maritime Infrastructure”

May 2025
78th Society of Architectural Historians Conference, Atlanta, Interaction vs. Isolation. Development of Settlements in the Mediterranean Basin panel as speaker; “Late Ottoman Mediterranean Urbanism Redefined: From Port City Unit to Development Process of Concentrated Interaction.”

April 2025
Historical Materialism Athens 2025 Conference Technology, Automation and Resistance track Critical Infrastructure Studies panel paper presented: “Late Ottoman Lighthouse Network as a form of Navigation Safety Infrastructure for
the Capital Circulatio.n”

April 2024
77th Society of Architectural Historians Conference New Mexico, Mapping Late Ottoman Architecture: Ideas, Objects and People in Flux panel as speaker; “Lighthouses: Making of a Maritime Infrastructure”

29th Crossing the Boundaries Graduate Student Conference At Kenneth C. Lindsay Study Room of the Binghamton University Art Museum

January 2024
History and Geography Talks (hybrid online and in person) Urban Institutes; “DOCKING INTO THE PORT: Lighthouse construction activities in the 19th century as a maritime trade infrastructure network”

Suez Canal 19th Century, Istanbul University Rare Book Library

2023

November 2023
Spatial Humanities Working Group (SHWG) SUNY Binghamton. Project presentation to gather volunteers to work on my digital humanities project which ended up having the highest number of volunteers up to that date within SHWG.

October 2023
4th Mid-Atlantic Ottomanist Workshop Princeton University

Danish Society for Marxist Studies: 8th annual conference [Declined attendance due to finance issues]

May 2023
DocTalks X MOMA

Ahırkapı Lighthouse, 19th Century Istanbul Ataturk Library