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Department of History

Professor Benjamin Fortna

BA (Yale), MA (Columbia), PhD (Chicago)

Overview

Ben Fortna
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:
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.
  • 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 Education

Expertise

For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4956/4135 or email comms@soas.ac.uk

Available for
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Press
  • Briefings
  • Special Study Programmes
  • Short Term Consultancy
  • Long Term Consultancy
Regional Expertise
  • Near and Middle East
Country Expertise
  • Lebanon
  • Palestine
  • Syria
  • Turkey
Languages
  • Arabic
  • Turkish

Publications

Jump to: Authored Books | Edited Books | Book Chapters | Articles

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. 5 . 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.

This list was generated on Fri Apr 5 00:57:29 2013 BST.