Professor Benjamin Fortna
BA (Yale), MA (Columbia), PhD (Chicago)
Overview
Department of History
Professor in the History of the Middle East
Centre for Palestine Studies (CPS)
Member
London Middle East Institute (LMEI)
Member
- Name:
- Professor Benjamin Fortna
- Email address:
- bf7@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- 020 7898 4632
- Address:
- SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 300
- Office Hours:
- Mondays 2-3pm
Biography
History. The transformation of the Middle East from 'traditonal to modern'Teaching
Courses Taught
PhD Students supervised
- Ayca Baydar, The Hybrid Identity of the Karamanlis
- Ayse Kara, Istanbul through Moroccan Travellers’ Eyes from 16th to 18th Century: a Comparative Study of Moroccan-Ottoman Travel Writing
- Ferah Contopoulos-Engin, The Role of the Media in Greek-Turkish Relations since 1999.
- Melania Savino, Archaeology and its Representation in the Turkish Republic (provisional title)
- Michael Talbot, British diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire during the long eighteenth-century.
- Philipp Wirtz, “Autobiography at the End of Empire: Modernity and Change in self-narrative about the late Ottoman Empire, 1880s-1920s”
- Umit Eser , Ottoman Bureaucrats in the Greek-Occupied Zone of Asia Minor, 1919-22: Forms of Collaboration and Resistance
Research
History of the Ottoman Empire; modern Middle East; History of EducationExpertise
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Available for
- Radio
- Press
- Briefings
- Special Study Programmes
- Short Term Consultancy
- Long Term Consultancy
- TV
Regional Expertise
- Near and Middle East
Country Expertise
- Lebanon
- Palestine
- Syria
- Turkey
Languages
- Arabic
- Turkish
Publications
Authored Books
Fortna, Benjamin C (2010) Learning to Read in the late Ottoman Empire and the Early Turkish Republic. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Fortna, Benjamin (2002) Imperial Classroom. Islam, Education and the State in Late Ottoman Empire. Oxford University Press.
Edited Books
Amin, C. M. and Fortna, Ben and Frierson, E. B., eds. (2005) Modern Middle Eastern History: A Sourcebook. Oxford University Press (Oxford).
Book Chapters
Fortna, Benjamin C (2011) 'Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire and After.' In: Cummings, Sally N and Hinnebusch, Raymond, (eds.), Sovereignty After Empire: Comparing the Middle East and Central Asia. Edinburgh University Press. (Forthcoming)
Fortna, Benjamin C (2010) 'The Ottoman Educational Legacy.' In: Kerslake, Celia and Öktem, Kerem and Robins, Philip, (eds.), Turkey's Engagement with Modernity: Conflict and Change in the Twentieth Century. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 15-26.
Fortna, Benjamin (2008) 'The reign of Abdülhamid II.' In: Kasaba, Resat, (ed.), The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 4: Turkey in the Modern World. Cambridge University Press, pp. 38-61.
Fortna, Benjamin (2007) 'Reading, Hegemony and Counterhegemony in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic.' In: Chalcraft, J. and Noorani, Y., (eds.), Counterhegemony in the Colony and Postcolony. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 141-54.
Fortna, Benjamin (2007) 'Emphasizing the Islamic: Modifying the Curriculum of Late Ottoman State Schools.' In: Kreiser, Klaus and Georgeon, François, (eds.), Enfance et jeunesse dans l'islam – Chilhood and Youth in the Muslim World. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, pp. 193-209.
Fortna, Benjamin (2002) 'Turkey - Education System.' In: Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 547-549.
Fortna, Benjamin (2000) 'The Kindergarten in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic.' In: Wollons, R., (ed.), Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 251-273.
Articles
Fortna, Benjamin C (2011) 'Reading between Public and Private in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic.' Comparative Studies in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 30 (3). pp. 563-573. (Forthcoming)
Fortna, Benjamin (2004) 'Change in the School Maps of the Late Ottoman Empire.' Imago Mundi: The International Journal for the History of Cartography, vol. 57,1 . pp. 17-28.
Fortna, Benjamin (2001) 'Education and Autobiography at the End of the Ottoman Empire.' Die Welt des Islams, 41 (1). pp. 1-31.
Fortna, Benjamin (2001) 'Learning to Read in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic.' Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East, 21 (1-2). pp. 33-41.
Fortna, Benjamin (2000) 'Remapping Ottoman Muslim Identity in the Hamidian Era: The Role of Cartographic Artifacts.' Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam, 3 . pp. 45-56.
Fortna, Benjamin (2000) 'Islamic Morality in Late Ottoman “SECULAR” Schools.' International Journal of Middle East Studies, 32 (3). pp. 369-393.
