Centre for Ottoman Studies

The Centre for Ottoman Studies is an interdisciplinary centre dedicated to the study of the Ottoman Empire and its legacies in post-Ottoman societies.

Building upon the rich history of scholarly engagements with the Ottoman Empire and its successors at SOAS, the Centre’s primary purposes are to promote research and teaching in the field of Ottoman studies and to facilitate links between SOAS and other individuals, institutions and associations with an academic interest in the Ottoman Empire and post-Ottoman societies.

The Centre's activities are particularly focused on understanding how the Ottoman past is experienced and used in contemporary contexts.

The post-Ottoman focus of the Centre is further emphasised by an exceptionally cross-disciplinary profile of its Members. The Centre Members belong to all three of the SOAS Faculties and are critically engaged in dealing with the Ottoman past and its cultural, artistic, legal, linguistic, anthropological, political and economic re-appropriations in centres and peripheries of the former Empire.    

The Centre engages in:

• gathering and disseminating information about Ottoman and post-Ottoman research among SOAS staff and students
• fostering the teaching of critical approaches to the Ottoman past and its contemporary uses
• organising public lectures and seminars on the Ottoman Empire and its legacies, especially in post-Ottoman societies
• hosting national and international workshops and conferences on Ottoman Studies-related issues
• fostering and facilitating individual and collaborative research on the Ottoman past and its contemporary re-imaginations
• developing worldwide contacts with institutions and associations dedicated to Ottoman Studies, especially in post-Ottoman societies
• publicising the Ottoman Studies-related research of Centre Members
• raising funds, and assisting Centre members in raising funds, for the above purposes

Meet the members.

The following SOAS programmes are in subjects related to the research focus of the centre:

• MA History
• MA Middle Eastern Studies
• MA Middle Eastern Studies and Intensive Languages

For any queries, please contact the Centre's Co-Chairs:

• Dr Vanja Hamzić (vh1@soas.ac.uk)
• Dr Senija Čaušević (sc83@soas.ac.uk).