E583 | Bu bölümde Dr. Görkem Akgöz’ün 2025 Hagley Prize in Business History ödülünü alan “In the Shadow of War and Empire Industrialisation, Nation-Building, and Working-Class Politics in Turkey” başlıklı kitabı üzerine konuşuyoruz. Akgöz’ün “Türk Manchester”ı olarak bilinen Bakırköy Bez Fabrikası’nı Osmanlı döneminde kuruluşundan itibaren odağa alan araştırması devletçiliği yalnızca bir kalkınma modeli değil, emek ve sınıf ilişkilerini yeniden kuran bir siyasal proje olarak düşünmeye davet ediyor. Erken Cumhuriyet Türkiye’sinde fabrika işçisi olmanın ne anlama geldiğini tartıştığımız bu sohbette, dilekçeler ve talepler üzerinden şekillenen aktif emek siyasetinin, devletin idealize ettiği düzen ile fabrikanın gerçekliği arasındaki gerilimleri nasıl açığa çıkardığını ele alıyoruz. Bu bağlamda, nostaljik anlatıların ötesine geçip erken Cumhuriyet sanayileşmesini disiplin, kontrol ve müzakere ekseninde sorgularken, Osmanlı ve Türkiye sanayi kapitalizminin gelişimi hakkında yeni sorular soruyoruz. Bölümün sonunda ise Akgöz’ün arşiv ve yazıyla kurduğu ilişkinin tarihsel düşünme ve anlatımını nasıl dönüştürdüğüne değiniyoruz.

E582 | What does it mean to be Turkish? In this episode, we examine that question with sociologist Barış Ünlü. In The Turkishness Contract, Ünlü studies the historical process by which Turkishness developed through a contractual relationship between the state and its citizens. In our conversation, we explore the late Ottoman roots of this process, as well as how the experiences of non-Turkish religious and ethnolinguistic groups shed light onto the often unspoken and unconscious behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs that govern Turkishness. We also discuss the book's wide reception in Turkish and how in its new English translation, Ünlü connects the Turkish experience to global perspectives on race and belonging in the modern world.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/turkishness-contract.html

Barış Ünlü is Assistant Professor, General Faculty, in the Department of Sociology at the University of Virginia. His latest book is Frantz Fanon: Sömürge Düşünürü - Sömürge Devrimcisi. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2025.

CREDITS

Episode No. 582

Release Date: 16 March 2026

Recording Location: University of Virginia

Sound production by Chris Gratien. Intro music by Korg Entertainer Keyboard. Interlude music by A.A. Aalto and closing music by Kara Güneş.

Bibliography courtesy of Barış Ünlü at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/turkishness-contract.html

A bonus conversation with historian Elizabeth Varon, author of Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South and many other titles, hosted by Chris Gratien, Claudrena Harold, and the graduate students of HIST 7001 at University of Virginia. More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/longstreet.html

E581 | After the US Civil War, some leaders of the defeated Confederacy followed unusual trajectories, perhaps none more so than James Longstreet, who joined the Republican party and became a proponent of Southern Reconstruction and for a brief period, the Minister Resident to the Ottoman Empire. In this episode, we talk to Elizabeth Varon, author of a new biography of Longstreet, about the rebel-turned-diplomat's brief tenure in the Ottoman capital during the early years of Sultan Abdul Hamid II's reign, and we discuss what Longstreet's experiences reveal about America on the world stage in the shadow of the Civil War and Reconstruction. We also discuss Prof. Varon's personal connection to post-Ottoman Istanbul, as well as her new research about Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, who followed in Longstreet's footsteps some years later on a humanitarian mission to the Ottoman Armenians in Anatolia.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/longstreet.html

Elizabeth R. Varon is Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. She is the author of six books, including Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023), which was reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Atlantic. Varon's current project is a biography of humanitarian Clara Barton.

Chris Gratien is Associate Professor of History at University of Virginia, where he teaches classes on global environmental history and the Middle East. His first book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, explores the social and environmental transformation of the Adana region of Southern Turkey during the 19th and 20th century.

CREDITS

Episode No. 581

Release Date: 3 March 2026

Recording Location: University of Virginia

Sound production by Chris Gratien

Music: Safiye Ayla - Katibim; Azize Tozem and Sari Recep - İstanbul'dan Ayva Da Gelir Nar Gelir; Kara Güneş - İstanbul

Bibliography courtesy of Elizabeth Varon at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/03/longstreet.html

E580 | How did Palestine become central to anti-imperial movements and thought in the global south? In this episode, Esmat Elhalaby asks how Arabs and South Asians contended with the “parting gifts of empire” in the long twentieth century, often by turning to Palestine. He talks about how Arab writers in conversation with India reinvented Orientalism as a critique of empire and reinterpreted the political possibilities and limitations of Islam as a political force. We close with a discussion of Esmat’s new work on the intellectual history of Gaza, the importance of talking about “bad Palestinians,” and what it means to write history at a time of genocide.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/02/elhalaby.html

Esmat Elhalaby is an Assistant Professor of Transnational History at the University of Toronto. His first book, Parting Gifts of Empire: Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization was published by the University of California Press in 2025.

Susanna Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Smith College. She writes and teaches on the history of gender, sexuality, and political thought in the modern Arab world.

CREDITS

Episode No. 580

Release Date: 11 February 2026

Sound production by Susanna Ferguson and Chris Gratien

Special thanks to Nada Moumtaz

Music: Blue Dot Sessions

Bibliography courtesy of Esmat Elhalaby at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/02/elhalaby.html

E579 | The word "refugee" might conjure images of families devastated by war fleeing their homeland. But what happens when those who seek asylum abroad do not conform to that image? As Sophia Balakian argues in her new book Unsettled Families: Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship, the question is one that shapes the case of every refugee seeking a new home abroad in the United States. The Somali and Congolese migrants in her study face an intense vetting process that includes DNA testing to confirm that a refugee family forms a biological unit, creating numerous reasons by which people who have survived war and displacement may be judged "fraudulent" family units. In this episode, Balakian is back on the podcast to share an anthropologist's perspective on the history of migration and the politics of kinship in refugee resettlement.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/01/balakian.html

Sophia Balakian is a scholar of migration and an assistant professor at George Mason University. Her book, Unsettled Families, was recognized as a 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Chris Gratien is Associate Professor of History at University of Virginia, where he teaches classes on global environmental history and the Middle East. His first book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, explores the social and environmental transformation of the Adana region of Southern Turkey during the 19th and 20th century.

Brittany White is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. Broadly, she is interested in the African Diaspora in former Ottoman territories.

CREDITS

Episode No. 579

Release Date: 22 January 2025

Recording Location: University of Virginia

Sound production and music by Chris Gratien. Closing music by A.A. Aalto

Bibliography courtesy of Sophia Balakian at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/01/balakian.html

E578 | While killing time at the Booksellers' Row in Westminster, historian and curator Gwendolyn Collaço stumbled on a collection of postcards from early 20th-century Egypt, some featuring the British burlesque artist Miss Kitty Lord. When she realized that the postcards were a set belonging to a single person — none other than Kitty Lord herself — the chance discovery became a research quest that culminated in an exhibition at Harvard Fine Arts Library, presenting a visual time capsule of Belle Époque Cairo that mapped the social and romantic life of a fascinating and little-known figure. In this episode from the Ottoman History Podcast vault, Collaço discusses what she uncovered about Kitty Lord through collaborations with the historian and bibliographer András Riedlmayer and memorobilia shop owner Paul Drummond, who appear in the podcast to share their side of the story.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2026/01/kitty-lord.html

E577 | Bağdat, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu için coğrafi uzaklığına rağmen merkezî idarenin vazgeçilmez vilayetlerinden biriydi. Tanzimat’tan itibaren bu önem, yalnızca askerî güvenlik veya sınır politikalarıyla sınırlı kalmadı; idarî modernleşme, ekonomik düzenlemeler ve toplumsal kontrol mekanizmalarının uygulandığı başlıca laboratuvarlardan biri haline geldi. II. Meşrutiyet’in ilanı ise bu denemeleri daha iddialı, daha sert ve daha merkezî bir siyasi programa dönüştürdü. Bu bölümde, Dr. Emine Şahin’le birlikte 1908–1917 arasında Bağdat’ta Osmanlı idaresinin dönüşümünü inceliyoruz. Merkezileşme politikalarının sahada nasıl uygulandığını, hangi aktörler aracılığıyla yürütüldüğünü ve yerel toplum tarafından nasıl karşılandığını tartışıyoruz.

Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Emine ŞAHİN, lisans ve yüksek lisans eğitimini İstanbul 29 Mayıs Üniversitesi Tarih Bölümü’nde tamamladı. Yüksek Lisans tezi “Arap gazeteci Selim Faris’in hayatı (1826-1908), faaliyetleri ve sosyal çevresi” üzerineydi. Doktorasını 2022 senesinde İstanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi’nde “II. Meşrutiyet Döneminde Bağdat’ta Osmanlı İdaresi (1908-1917)” başlıklı tez ile tamamladı. Çalışmalarında son dönem Osmanlı Ortadoğusu’na ağırlık vermekle birlikte modernleşme sürecinde kent tarihi, mimarlık tarihi, basın tarihi, sosyo-ekonomik tarih ve kültür tarihi üzerine de odaklandı. Akademik çalışmalarına 2017 senesinden itibaren Düzce Üniversitesi Tarih Bölümü’nde devam etmektedir. 2025 yılın TÜBA GEBİP ödülüne layık görülmüştür.

Can Gümüş doktora derecesini Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Atatürk Enstitüsü’nden 2025 yılında aldı. Can’ın geç dönem Osmanlı İstanbul'unda hijyen, kentsel dönüşüm ve yönetişim arasındaki bağlantıları araştıran doktora tezi, İstanbul’u sıhhileştirme çabalarının kentin kendine özgü sosyo-politik ve coğrafi bağlamı içinde farklı aktörlerin birbiriyle ilişkileri çerçevesinde gerçekleştiğini göstermeyi amaçlar. Araştırma alanları kentsel çevre tarihi, halk sağlığı tarihi ve tıp tarihini kapsamaktadır. Hâlihazırda Boğaziçi Üniversitesi’nde modern Türkiye tarihi dersleri veren Can, OHP ekibine 2018 yılında katılmıştır.

YAPIM VE YAYIN

Bölüm No: 577

Yayın tarihi: 25 Aralık 2025

Ses Editörü: Can Gümüş

Görseller ve kaynakça Emine Şahin'in müsaadesiyle: https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/12/sahin.html

E576 | The seventeenth century has often been characterized as a period of disorder and religious polemics in the Ottoman Empire. In this podcast, Nir Shafir takes us inside his new book, which argues that the polemics of the early modern Ottoman world were fueled in part by changes in communication, namely the rise of short pamphlets that circulated easily in handwritten copies. Pamphlets created a new arena largely independent from the institutional centers of knowledge production where people debated everyday questions of the time about what it meant to be Muslim. In exploring the world of Ottoman pamphlets, Shafir also offers a new introduction to the nature of Ottoman education, book production, and reading practices prior to the rise of print and modern state institutions.

More at https://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2025/12/shafir.html

Nir Shafir is Associate Professor of History at University of California, San Diego. His first book, The Order and Disorder of Communication: Pamphlets and Polemics in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire (Stanford, 2024), was awarded 2025 Book Prize from the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association. Shafir is also a longtime contributor to the Ottoman History Podcast, formerly serving as editor-in-chief and appearing in over 50 episodes since 2013.

Maryam Patton is Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University. Her research interests span the cultural and intellectual history of the late medieval and early modern Ottoman Empire, the history and theories of time and temporality, and cross-cultural transmission in the Mediterranean world, among others. She received her PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University and is preparing her first book on the Ottoman conception of time.

CREDITS

Episode No. 576

Release Date: 6 December 2025

Sound production by Maryam Patton

Music: "Vibing Over Venus" by Kevin MacLeod

Fahad Bishara - Voyage Stories: The Natural and Supernatural on the Deck of a Dhow by Ottoman History Podcast