Western Ottomanists' Workshop

Nov 18-19: UCLA hosts the Western Ottomanists' Workshop (WOW) hybrid, both in person and online.



When: Friday, November 18, 2022 (Pacific Time)



 

 

Please RSVP to obtain Zoom link.

Please note changed dates and locations for the conference. 

Day 1 - Friday, November 18, 2022
Location: Outside Young Research Library

4:15-5:30 PM Panel: Ottoman Legal and Administrative Structures || Chair: John Curry (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Ismail Noyan (Simon Fraser University), Mecelle as the Product of Global Islamic Networks || Discussant: Jun Akiba (University of Tokyo | Zoom)

Madonna Aoun Ghazal (UCLA), Women in the Shari’ah Court of Beirut: 1875-1914 || Discussant: Samy Ayoub (University of Texas at Austin | Zoom)

Daniel Ohanian (UCLA) If There Was No Millet System, What Was There? || Discussant: Christine Philliou (UC Berkeley)

5:30-5.45 PM Break

5:45-6.45 PM Panel: Nineteenth Century Ottoman Identities Beyond the Millet System || Chair: James Gelvin (UCLA)

Bedros Torosian (UC Irvine), A Living Imperial Space for a “White Nation-Race: Ottomanism, Eugenics, and the Quest for a Decentralized Armenian Fatherland || Discussant: Sebouh Aslanian (UCLA)

Hilal Tümer (UC Berkeley/ Zoom), Aegean in Flux: A Study on the Moreot Migrants in the Nineteenth Century | | Discussant: Isacar Bolaños (California State University Long Beach)

 

Day 2 - Saturday, November 19 2022
Location: University of Southern California (University of Southern California) — SOS 250 (Social Sciences Building Room 250)

8-8:30 AM Registration

8:30-10:10 AM Panel: Ottoman Language, Literature, and Carnivals || Chair: Selim Kuru (University of Washington)

Jennifer Manoukian (UCLA), Turkish as an Ottoman-Armenian Prestige Language || Discussant: Nir Shafir (UC San Diego | Zoom)

İpek Şahinler (University of Texas at Austin) Queer Ottoman-Turkish Literature || Discussant: Selim Kuru (University of Washington)

Nora Bairamian (UCLA) Assessing the Development of Armenian Nationalism in the Ottoman Borderlands Through the Genre of the Short Story || Discussant: Dzovinar Derderian (UC Berkeley)

Naz Vardar (Simon Fraser University) Gender and Transgression in Apokries and Baklahorani Festivities in Late-Ottoman Istanbul || Discussant: Ceyhun Arslan (Koç University | Zoom)

10:10-10:30 AM Break

10:30 AM-12:10 PM Panel: Vampires, Converts, and Financiers in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire || Chair: Adam Sabra (UC Santa Barbara)

Zehra Ilhan (UC Davis), Ottoman Women’s Piety Under Construction: The Emergence of ‘‘Husband-Centered’’ Religiosity in Early Modern Ottoman Manuscripts || Discussant: Adam Sabra (UC Santa Barbara)

Christopher Whitehead (The Ohio State University) Financiers at Court during the Minority of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648-56) || Discussant: Linda Darling (University of Arizona)

Elyakim Engelmann-Suissa (University of Washington) The Law of the Other: Converts and Gentiles in the Eyes of Seventeenth-Century Istanbul Rabbis || Discussant: Jacob Max Daniels (Stanford University)

Hüseyin Göcen (UC Davis) Morbid questions and vampires of plague: Vampire cases from provincial jurisconsults’ fatwa collections in early modern Ottoman Empire || Discussant: James Grehan (Portland State University | Zoom)

12:10-1:10 PM Lunch Break

1:15-2:15 PM Lunchtime Roundtable on Manuscripts in SoCal || Chair: Luke Yarbrough (UCLA)

Ali Anooshahr (UC Davis | Zoom)
Gwendolyn Collaço (Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Zoom)
Sohaib Baig (UCLA Library)
Luke Yarbrough (UCLA)

2:15-2:30 PM Break

2:30-4:00 PM Panel: Race and Capitalism in the Ottoman Empire: Sephardic Jews, Afro-Turks, Greek-Turkish Population Exchange || Chair: Reşat Kasaba (University of Washington)

Rachel Smith (UCLA), Space, Race, and Capital: An Examination of Ottoman Sephardic Travel Literature || Discussant: Reşat Kasaba (University of Washington)

Oluwamayowa Willoughby (Cornell University), Afro Turkik Plots: Agriculture, Labor and the Politics of Racialization from the 19th Century Ottoman Empire to Post Ottoman Contemporary Turkey || Discussant: Baki Tezcan (UC Davis)

Kaleb Herman Adney (UCLA), The Political Economy of Ethnic Cleansing: Sephardic Jews, Commercial Speculation, and the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange || Discussant: Nora Barakat (Stanford University | Zoom)

3:50-4:05 PM Break

4:05PM-4:45 PM Heather Ferguson (Claremont McKenna College): Professionalization Workshop

4:50PM-5:15 PM Sebouh Aslanian (UCLA), Closing Remarks

5:15PM-5:45 PM Discussion of Sebouh’s Pre-Circulated Closing Speech among Keynote Panelists; comments by Christine Philliou (UC Berkeley), Sarah Stein (UCLA), Baki Tezcan (UC Davis)

5:45-6:05 PM Q&A / Open Up Discussion to General Audience
6:10-7:00 pm Ottoman Music Lecture and Demonstration – Münir Beken (UCLA Ethnomusicology), Mikey Aboutboul (Musician) and Ian Price (Musician)



Please direct all queries to WOWUCLAWOW@gmail.com

Sponsor(s): Center for Near Eastern Studies, Center for European and Russian Studies, African Studies Center, Program on Central Asia, Department of History, Islamic Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies, UCLA's Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, CMRS Center for Early Global Studies, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Library Special Collections