Ufuk Serin

Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (Turkey)

Weinberg Fellow in Architectural History and Preservation

Constructing memory in Byzantine architecture: spolia as a mnemonic device

2024–2025: Fall

Ufuk Serin is currently an associate professor of architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara. After graduating from the Department of Architecture at METU, she obtained her M.Sc. in Cultural Heritage Conservation from the same university. She received her doctoral degree in Early Christian Art and Archaeology from the Pontificio Istituto di Archeologia Cristiana (PIAC) in Vatican City. She has been the recipient of doctoral and post-doctoral research grants and fellowships from various prestigious institutions, including Fiat International and the Koç Foundation (1998–2000); the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (2010); the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Harvard University (1999 and 2008); the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut (2010–2011); the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in association with the School for Advanced Research (SAR) (2011); and Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations (ANAMED) (Spring 2024–2025). Dr. Serin has decades of professional experience in archaeological field survey and excavation. She coordinated the Turkish component of the partnership in the Byzantium – Early Islam Project (BYZeIS) of the Euromed Heritage III Program, funded by the European Commission. Her research interests primarily include Late Antique and Byzantine architecture and urbanism, Early Christian and Medieval archaeology, combined with studies in architectural history, contested heritage, and the interpretation and presentation of heritage sites.