Overview
I am interested in the history of experience at the end of the Age of Empire. In short, experiential history of global events. I study the global history of imperialism seen primarily through the lens of Ottoman-, Turkish-, and Arabic-language archival records and the everyday lived experience of people living in Southeast Europe, Northeast Africa, and West Asia. I am interested in uncovering how the region's people experienced the often violent transition from Ottoman imperial rule to Western colonial rule, and on to the age of the nation-state.
Research Focus
As a fellow at the National Humanities Center (2024-25), I am working on my third book project on Ottoman-Ethiopian Relations and the Geopolitics of Imperialism in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea Basin. It uncovers an untold history of Ottoman imperial ambitions along the Red Sea coast stretching from Djibouti to the Suez and the northern Somali coast from Bab el-Mandab to the tip of the Horn of Africa. It will introduce the Istanbul-Addis Ababa imperial axis of power that existed in dialectic tension with the other North-South axes that stretched from European imperial capitals to the African coasts of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The result will be a new global history of competing imperial strategic interests between 1878 and 1918. What do we learn about the history of the Red Sea and the Somali coasts if we weave the history of regional powers into the larger diplomatic and military histories of European empires in Africa? How can we recast Ottoman imperialism in the region once we understand inter-imperial relations from an Ottoman government鈥檚 perspective, not only through its competition with the Great Powers but also its relationship with its counterpart in Africa? What do we learn about the nature of global imperialism during this period, if we shift the archival focus to the untapped Ottoman records on Africa? How did locals experience and remember European, African, and Ottoman imperial intervention, and what role did race and racism play in the construction of Ottoman and Ethiopian imperial attitudes?
Parallel articles and other intellectual projects include upcoming pieces on race in the Middle East, Whiteness outside of the West, and experiential history in the telling of global events focusing on the experiences of those living outside of Western Europe and North America.
Awards and Honors
- Fellow, National Humanities Center (2024-25)
- The Alfred Howell Chair in History and Archeology Visiting Faculty - American University of Beirut (2019-20)
- Senior Fellow, Research Center for Anatolian Civilization (ANAMED) 鈥 Ko莽 University (2018)
- Fellow, Remarque Institute 鈥 New York University (2016)
- Postdoctoral Fellow, EUME - Wissenschaftkolleg zu Berlin (2011-12)
Publications
Books
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022)
- (Istanbul: FOL, 2023)
(Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press, 2016).
丕賱毓孬賲丕賳賷賵賳 賵 丕賱鬲丿丕賮毓 丨賵賱 廿賮乇賷賯賷丕: 丕賱丕賲亘乇賷丕賱賷丞 賵丕賱丿亘賱賵賲丕爻賷丞 賲賳 丕賱氐丨乇丕亍 丕賱賰亘乇賶 丕賱賶 丕賱丨噩丕夭
(Africa Institute in Sharjah, 2023)
(Istanbul: Koc University Press, 2018).
Ottoman-Ethiopian Relations and the Geopolitics of Imperialism in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea Basin (In progress 鈥 Under contract with Stanford University Press).
Some Peer-Reviewed Articles
- 鈥淚nternational Law and the Precarity of Ottoman Sovereignty in Africa at the End of the 19th 颁别苍迟耻谤测,鈥 The International History Review (May 2020) <DOI:10.1080/07075332.2020.1765837>
- 鈥淭elegraphs and Territoriality in Ottoman Africa and Arabia During the Age of High Imperialism,鈥 Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 18 (2016): 576-587.
鈥淏eyond Rhetoric: Reassessing Bedouin-Ottoman relations along the route of the Hijaz Telegraph Line at the end of the nineteenth century,鈥 Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 58 (1-2) (2015): 75鈥104.
Podcast & Print Interviews for Losing Istanbul
鈥鈥 The Lausanne Project Podcast. Interviewer: Ozan Ozavc谋 (August 2023)
芦&苍产蝉辫;禄 L鈥橭rient-Le Jour. Interviewer: Soulayma Mardam Bey (June 2023)
鈥,鈥 Jadaliyya.com (April 2023)
鈥鈥 The Ottoman History Podcast. Interviewer: Zeinab Azarbadegan (March 2023)
鈥,鈥 New Books Network Podcast. Interviewer: Reuben Silverman (January 2023)
鈥,鈥 Turkey Book Talk Podcast. Interviewer: William Armstrong (January 2023)
Sample Public History Engagement
鈥The Fall of the Ottoman Empire鈥 animated Video. (EDP 2025), TED-ED: Lessons Worth Sharing.
鈥鈥 documentary. Consultant and Contributor on this Channel 4 鈥 UK.
鈥鈥&苍产蝉辫;videocast, Afikra: A Communal Exploration of Arab History and Culture
鈥鈥&苍产蝉辫;animated video, TED-ED: Lessons Worth Sharing.
Sample Newspaper Op.Eds.
- A regular contributor to (2015-present.)
- 鈥,鈥 Wall Street Journal (Jul 30, 2015)
- 鈥,鈥 Haaretz (Jul 18, 2014)
- 鈥淥rtado臒u Tarihinin M眉艧k眉l Ger莽e臒i,鈥 Evrensel (Jul 13, 2014)
In the news
- Alum spotlight: Ibrahim Gemeah, Ph.D. 鈥23
- Syria developments and foreign involvement: Cornell experts comment
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author from Jerusalem to speak Oct. 10
- National Humanities Center selects two A&S professors as 2024-25 Fellows
- Minawi wins Middle East Studies Association book prize
- 鈥楲osing Istanbul鈥: Personal histories illustrate an empire鈥檚 end
- Global Cornell awards support new international courses
- Einaudi Center announces new Global Public Voices fellows
- Cornell informs, takes action on Afghanistan
- Ottoman history video reaches hundreds of thousands
- Center advances social sciences research with spring grants
- Six on faculty receive Einaudi Center grants for international work
- Field research leads to surprising results for historian
- ISS grants jump-start new social science research
- Historian examines manipulation of international law
- Cornell provides refuge for scholars under threat
- Migration, immigration and refugees today
- Sending Syrian refugees to Gulf states a misguided solution
