This course is designed to introduce MA students to the Ottoman nineteenth century and recent historiographical debates. The aim is to present the students with the main paradigms and trends in modern Turkish historiography and discuss the nineteenth century developments with an eye to contemporary problems of Turkish politics. As part of this goal, the students will also gain familiarity with conceptual history method as a way to think about the past and present of Turkish society.
The course will focus on criticisms of modernization theory, the so-called post-Kemalist paradigm and neo-Ottomanist uses of the past in the first weeks. After a brief detour into methodological concerns, the course will continue with topical examinations of Ottoman nineteenth century including but not limited to issues such as reform, secularization, contentious politics, constitutionalism, citizenship, identity and caliphate. In addition to most recent scholarship on the era, the instructor will provide the students with excerpts from primary sources (together with English translations) which will improve the students’ ability to engage critically with the archives.
By the end of the course, the students will have a general grasp of main paradigms, problems and questions in modern Turkish Studies and be able to reflect on continuities and ruptures over the last two centuries in a scholarly manner. They will also gain familiarity with recent approaches to study of politics and ideology with a focus on concepts. In addition to preparing in-class presentations on the course material, for the term paper the students will write an analytical literature review on an issue of their choosing within the scope of the course.