Gözde Mercan

Gözde Mercan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto (St. George campus), specializing in Turkish Language and Linguistics. Her research focuses on psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, and Turkish morpho-syntax, particularly examining how learners and heritage speakers process Turkish sentence structures and loanwords.

• PhD in Cognitive Science (Linguistics major, Psychology minor), Middle East Technical University
• MPhil in Linguistics, University of Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle
• BA in English Language and Literature, Bilkent University

Her work investigates L2 learners' real-time comprehension of ambiguous Turkish sentences, word-order preferences in multilingual speakers, and the interplay between classroom teaching and psycholinguistic research. She organizes international workshops like 'Research-Based Practices in the Teaching of Turkish as L2' and explores Turkish language use in Canadian multilingual contexts.

• SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2023-2024): L2 ambiguity resolution
• SSHRC Institutional Grant (2024): Possessive NP corpus analysis
• Jackman Humanities Institute SiR Program (2023): Loanword mental lexicons
• Dean’s Merit Award (2021)

Mercan contributes to Turkish language pedagogy through courses covering all proficiency levels and cultural aspects like literature, media, and cinema. She actively participates in academic committees including the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages and the Canadian Society for Turkish Studies, while collaborating with U of T's Global Languages Initiative and Data Science Institute.