Episodes

  • Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship

    Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Kinship
    Jan 22 2026

    with Sophia Balakian hosted by Brittany White and Chris Gratien | 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" families. 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. « Click for More »
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  • A British Burlesque Artist in Belle Époque Cairo

    A British Burlesque Artist in Belle Époque Cairo
    Jan 9 2026

    featuring Gwendolyn Collaço
    with Andras Riedlmayer and Paul Drummond | 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. « Click for More »
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  • Osmanlı’nın Bağdat’taki Son Yılları

    Osmanlı’nın Bağdat’taki Son Yılları
    Dec 25 2025

    Emine Şahin Sunucu: Can Gümüş | 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. « Click for More »
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  • Pamphlets and Polemics in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire

    Pamphlets and Polemics in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire
    Dec 6 2025

    with Nir Shafir hosted by Maryam Patton | 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 award-winning 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. « Click for More »
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  • A Sea of Sorcery: Roundtable with Shannon Chakraborty

    A Sea of Sorcery: Roundtable with Shannon Chakraborty
    Nov 19 2025

    produced by Shireen Hamza
    and featuring
    Fahad Bishara, KD Thompson, Liana Saif,
    Mahmood Kooria, Rebecca Hankins, and Samantha Pellegrino | What could historians have to say about a fantasy novel? The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, published in 2023, follows an aging mother and captain on magical adventures across the twelfth-century Indian Ocean world with her crew. It has been read widely, hitting bestseller lists in the US and being translated into eight languages. In this episode, a group of historians discusses the novel with its author, Shannon Chakraborty. Our conversation covers gender and geography, language and literature, piety and piracy, and of course, magic. « Click for More »
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  • Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet’e İstanbul’da Elektrikli Yaşam

    Osmanlı'dan Cumhuriyet’e İstanbul’da Elektrikli Yaşam
    Nov 10 2025

    Nurçin İleri, Emine Öztaner ve Meltem Kocaman Sunucu: Can Gümüş | Bu bölümde, Nurçin İleri, Emine Öztaner ve Meltem Kocaman ile elektriğin Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e uzanan süreçte gündelik yaşamı ve toplumsal ilişkileri nasıl dönüştürdüğünü tartışıyoruz. İstanbul’un ilk aydınlatma girişimlerinden sanayi tesislerine, tramvay hatlarından ev içi teknolojilere uzanan örneklerle, teknolojik yeniliklerin yalnızca kent altyapılarını değil, aynı zamanda kentlilerin yaşam tahayyüllerini de nasıl şekillendirdiğini inceliyoruz. İleri’nin derlediği Bir Cereyan Hasıl Oldu: Osmanlı’dan Cumhuriyet’e İstanbul’da Elektrikli Yaşam (Tarih Vakfı, 2024) başlıklı kitabı temel alan sohbetimizde, elektriğin, bir teknik yenilik olmanın ötesinde, modernleşme, emek, toplumsal cinsiyet ve kamusal alan gibi kesişen temalar etrafında yeni bir toplumsal düzenin ve kültürel dönüşümün parçası hâline gelişini konuşuyoruz. « Click for More »
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  • Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison

    Türkiye, Iran, and the Politics of Comparison
    Oct 31 2025

    with Perin Gürel hosted by Chris Gratien | Comparisons are everywhere in American discussions of Middle East politics. As our guest, Perin Gürel, argues in a new book, this cultural impulse has political roots in the Cold War period. In this episode, we explore the origins of comparitivism through the lens of America's evolving relationship with Turkey and Iran over the course of the 20th century, focusing on how gender and race shaped the terms of the assymetrical relations between the US and other countries in the region. We discuss the "daddy issues" reflected in comparisons between the founding figures of the Republic of Turkey and Iran's monarchy, the changing image of Iran's empress on the global stage, and the ambivalent claims to whiteness and anti-imperialism that took shape in both countries. Throughout the conversation, we return to a critique of comparison as a placeholder for knowledge and a political instrument wielded with varying degrees of success to further American foreign policy goals, and we reflect on how this American project has shaped how all of us conceptualize the region's major social and political questions today. « Click for More »
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  • Martin Crusius and the Discovery of Ottoman Greece

    Martin Crusius and the Discovery of Ottoman Greece
    Oct 24 2025

    with Richard Calis hosted by Maryam Patton | In the late sixteenth century, a German Lutheran scholar named Martin Crusius compiled a remarkable ethnographic and scholarly account of Greek life under Ottoman rule in his seminal Turcograecia. Though he never left his home in Tübingen, Crusius spent decades corresponding with a far-flung network of intermediaries, including the Greek Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul. He annotated books and manuscripts, and even interviewed Greek Orthodox alms-seekers who passed through Germany. In this episode, Richard Calis explores how Crusius’s fascination with the so-called Ottoman Greeks sheds light on broader early modern debates about cultural and religious difference and how Greek identity became entangled with orientalist perceptions of the Ottoman world. The Ottoman Turks, both omnipresent and strangely absent in Crusius’s research, emerge in unexpected places, including in his dreams. « Click for More »
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