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( History 284 is an undergraduate course offered for 5 units; History 384 is a graduate course offered for 4-5 units.) The Ottoman Empire ruled the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe from the 15th to the early 20th centuries. How did the Ottoman enterprise appear in the frontier region between Christendom and the Islamic world? How were diverse peoples, religions, and regions integrated under the Ottoman order? Was there an Ottoman Mediterranean and Indian Ocean? How did reform movements in Islamic, Christian and Jewish thinking transform Ottoman societies? Topics include the Ottoman Empire between Europe and Eastern Islamic World; merchants and their markets; elite, urban, rural and nomadic lives; women, family, childhood and sexuality; life, afterlife and dreams; epidemics and natural disasters. Special emphasis will be given to coffee and coffee houses which shaped public life in the Ottoman World since the 16th century. The survey ends with the rise of nationalism, inter-communal violence and the disintegration of the Ottoman world.

This course presents a comprehensive exploration of key themes in Ottoman History spanning the 14th to the early 20th centuries. Emphasizing a critical approach, the curriculum introduces students to historiographical debates within the field. It is designed to contextualize Ottoman history within broader frameworks, including European, Eurasian, Mediterranean, and Islamic history. Additionally, the course delves into the intellectual trends of the 20th and 21st centuries that shape the landscape of Ottoman History, providing students with a holistic understanding of the field's evolution.

In the first millennium, Christians writing in a dialect of Aramaic called Syriac thrived throughout the Middle East. Because Roman Catholic and Protestant churches later declared many of these Christians to be heretics, their stories have been excluded from the history of Christianity. This course challenges the assumption of Christianity as a "Western" religion and asks how our understanding of global Christianity changes when we include the history and perspective of middle eastern Christians. We will read in English translation sources such as accounts of trans-saints, a letter allegedly written by Jesus, the tale of a demon-possessed monastery, and the first Christian writings on Islam. Undergraduates wanting to enroll in this seminar need to have previously taken one of the following courses: "Exploring the New Testament," "What Didn't Make It in the Bible," or "Sex and the Early Church," or they must obtain permission from the instructor. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.

This course examines the political history of modern Turkey, encouraging students to critically rethink democracy in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Republic of Turkey has oscillated between democratic openings and authoritarian closures, shaped by complex social, economic, and institutional dynamics, as well as global trends and geopolitical developments over the past century. Built on the legacy of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey emerged as a secular republic and assertive nation-state. Over the course of the 20th century, it experienced a dynamic multi-party system, influential leftist movements, military coups, cycles of economic expansion and contraction, neoliberal reforms, a Kurdish national revival, and the rise of Islamism. Once hailed as a model for harmonizing democracy with Islam, Turkey is now often seen as a leading example of new authoritarianism under the Erdogan regime. This course explores Turkey's democratic experience - its possibilities and challenges - from historical and theoretical perspectives. By rethinking democracy through the lens of Turkey's history, it places the Turkish experience within a comparative framework alongside countries such as Tunisia, Greece, Israel, Mexico, South Korea, and the United States.

Focuses on political regimes, transregional connections, economic interactions and sociocultural formations in the early modern Islamic Afro-Eurasia. Topics include complex political-economic systems of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires and expansion of Turco-Persianate political and literary cultures across the Post-Mongolian Eurasia; experiences of various Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindu, as well as urban, rural and nomadic communities and networks under Islamicate political regimes; consolidation of transregional commerce and cultural exchange with the proliferation of networks of merchants, scholars and sufis; new tendencies in knowledge, individual, gender, family, social order, and religion; incorporation of the Islamic world in the global economy; Muslims in the age of revolutions; political and social reforms and consolidation of Muslim internationalism in the age of imperialism.