Middle East Centre Emirates PhD Award Winners 2014-15

Valeria Cetorelli, Department of Social Policy

Thesis title: Assessing the Effects of the 2003-2011 Iraq War on Fertility, Maternal and Newborn Health

Valeria is a PhD candidate in Demography at LSE. She holds an MSc in Population and Development (with distinction) from LSE, an MA in Longitudinal Social Research (with distinction) from the University of Essex, and a BA in Political Science (summa cum laude) from LUISS University of Rome. Her research revolves around the sociopolitical determinants of population health, with a particular focus on the Middle East region. Her PhD thesis assesses the effects of the 2003-2011 Iraq War on fertility, maternal and newborn health using longitudinal data from multiple consecutive surveys. A list of her publications can be found here. |

Pinar Ceylan, Department of Economic History

Thesis Title: Market Integration, Domestic Trade, and Consumption in the Ottoman Empire (17th-19th centuries)

Pinar is a PhD candidate at the Department of Economic History at LSE. During the 2013/4 academic year, she served as a teaching assistant for the course History of Economics: How Theories Change. Her research focuses on commodity markets, trade and consumption in the Ottoman Empire from mid-17th to mid-19th centuries. It aims at revealing aspects of market behaviour that can be simultaneously observed in different regions (non-Western as well as Western ones societies) across the early modern world. Through this, her work contributes to wider debates in history, economics and development about the nature of pre-industrial economies and the causes of global economic divergence and growth. 

Davide Luca, |Department of Geography & Environment
 
Thesis Title: Essays on the political economy of regional economic development. Evidence from Turkey during AKP ruling.

Davide’s thesis explores the impacts of electoral politics and partisanship on regional development policymaking and performance in Turkey. The thesis aims at assessing the extent to which the electoral victory of Erdoğan’s Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (Justice and Welfare Party)in 2002 marked – or not – a new deal for Turkey’s policymaking and public governance. Prior to and during his studies at LSE Davide has produced research for the European Parliament, worked at the European Commission and co-written and developed an international social documentary-film. He can be reached at: d.luca@lse.ac.uk.|