Ottoman Europe or Europe’s Ottomans: The Politics of Defining the Self and the Other

Lecture by Dr. Huseyin Yilmaz

Thursday, November 15, 2012 4:30 PM EST
Johnson Center, Meeting Room E

Centuries of interaction between Europe and the Ottoman Empire proved indispensable for defining the self and the other between these two entities. History, geography, religion and science both reflected and exploited to promote what it meant to be European or Ottoman which became increasingly politicized and canonized during the Eastern Question debate of the nineteenth century. This repertoire of perceptions continues to be often invoked when relations between Europe and the Middle East is called into question, including Turkey’s accession talks with the European Union.

Huseyin Yilmaz is Co-Director of the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of History. He received his PhD in 2005 from Harvard University in History and Middle Eastern Studies, and has formerly taught at the University of South Florida and Stanford University. Dr. Yilmaz specializes in cultural and intellectual history of the Ottoman Empire.His previous fellowships include American Research Institute in Turkey and Internationales Forschungszentrum Kulturwissenschaften, Vienna. He has published articles and book chapters on such topics as constitutionalism, imperial ideology, historiography, and cultural geography. He is currently working on a book project examining imageries of the caliphate in sixteenth century Ottoman Empire.