Some of his best Tar Heel experiences were trans-Atlantic

Deniz Erdal and Kathryn Haenni posing for a photo with mountains, a lake and greenery outside of Salzburg, Austria, seen behind them. — Deniz Erdal met his fiancée, Kathryn Haenni ’24, while the two were on an Honors Carolina Burch Field Research Seminar together the summer of 2023. The two are pictured here outside of Salzburg, Austria. (Submitted photo)

The graduate program Deniz Erdal is about to complete is what convinced him to choose UNC-Chapel Hill for his undergraduate education in 2020.

The Turkish American student from Columbus, Ohio, was awarded assured admission to Carolina’s TransAtlantic Masters program as a high school senior set on majoring in contemporary European studies.

He was sold on that path and soon learned that Chapel Hill was a great place to be.

“Euro-TAM really drew me in,” said Erdal, who speaks Turkish, German and a bit of Arabic. “Once I was on campus, I fell in love with the Bell Tower and the Old Well.”

Six years later, Erdal ’24, ’26 (TAM) said his plan couldn’t have gone any better.

As an undergraduate, he served as president of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies and worked in Student Government for three years. Erdal even met his fiancée, Kathryn Haenni ’24, the summer of 2023 while studying in Bosnia and Herzegovina during an Honors Carolina Burch Field Research Seminar.

Erdal recently returned from Humboldt University of Berlin, the partner institution he picked through TAM, a program in which he’ll earn two political science master’s degrees — one from Carolina and one from Humboldt — focusing on contemporary Europe, its institutions and politics, and the trans-Atlantic relationship. TAM students study in Chapel Hill for one or two semesters before spending the rest of their time at one of seven partner universities across six European nations.

Enjoying ‘the Tar Heel community’ overseas

Erdal said Humboldt is one of the most popular European universities among TAM students and that he had a great experience living in the German capital.

“I absolutely love Berlin,” he said. “It’s such a lively and interesting city, but I also really appreciated having the Tar Heel community there.”

Erdal was one of nine TAM students there, including his two roommates.

“I really appreciate how, through programs like this, Carolina gives students a global perspective and can tie the entire world back to North Carolina,” Erdal said.

Erdal returned to the U.S. in February and is now finishing up his master’s thesis. Erdal is completing a quantitative analysis on how economic conditions affected support for incumbent politicians from 2000 to 2025 across the 38 nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

While flip rates have increased dramatically post-COVID, Erdal hasn’t found a strong correlation between macroeconomic indicators and incumbent support. “This ties into post-material social cleavages, whereby people vote not based on their material interests but more out of social identifiers,” he said.

Deniz Erdal in Carolina Blue gown posing for photo near the Old Well.

Erdal completed his undergraduate education and graduated from Carolina in 2024. As an undergraduate, he served as president of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies and worked in Student Government for three years. (Submitted photo)

As an undergraduate, Erdal paired his contemporary European studies major with an information science major.

That’s proved useful, both in the TAM program and in searching for a job in New York City, where he’ll move with his fiancée for her graduate education at Columbia University this fall.

“I’m looking for positions in think tanks or international relations consultancies,” Erdal said. “Anywhere I can put the data analysis and area studies expertise UNC has given me to good use.”

Erdal and his fiancée fell for one another — literally and figuratively — during their Burch summer research in the Balkans. Their introduction came when Haenni tripped on a balcony chair and landed in Erdal’s arms.

“I think we knew we were going to get married by the third week of the trip,” he said.

As he prepares to graduate from Carolina for a second time, Erdal is grateful that his experience aligns with the University’s guarantee to offer a global education to all students.

“Carolina has given me great friends, an incredible education and my soon-to-be wife,” Erdal said. “I absolutely love Carolina. Unlike my fiancée, I wasn’t a Tar Heel born. But I’ll certainly be a Tar Heel for life.”