Hearing the Voiceless – Seeing the Invisible: Orphans and Destitute Children as Actors of Social, Economic, and Political History in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
studied political science at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. She received her M.A. degree from the same department in 2003. Her research focused on the research and publications of scholars associated with the Turkish Review of Anthropology from 1925 to 1939 and analyzed a form of early Turkish nationalism that was shaped by a racist discourse supported by and purveyed through the disciplinary authority of anthropology. In January 2008 she completed her PhD at History in Sabanci University with a dissertation entitled Hearing the Voiceless – Seeing the Invisible: Orphans and Destitute Children as Actors of Social, Economic, and Political History in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire. She worked as part-time lecturer at Boğaziçi University and Sabanci University in 2008 and 2009. Her publications include: Foster-Daughter or Servant, Charity or Abuse: Beslemes in the Late Ottoman Empire (Journal of Historical Sociology, 21/2008, 488–512); “This time women as well got involved in politics!”: Nineteenth Century Ottoman Women’s Organizations and Political Agency (Sima Aprahamian, Victoria Rowe eds., Ottoman Women’s Movements and Print Cultures, University of Texas Press, 2009); Türklüğü Ölçmek: Bilimkurgusal Antropoloji ve Türk Milliyetçiliğinin Irkçı Çehresi, 1925-1939 [Measuring Turkishness: Science-Fictive Anthropology and Racist Face of Turkish Nationalism, 1925–1939], İstanbul: Metis, 2005; 2nd ed. 2007; The Turkish Review of Anthropology and the Racist Face of Turkish Nationalism (Cultural Dynamics,17/2005, 291–322).
Hearing the Voiceless – Seeing the Invisible: Orphans and Destitute Children as Actors of Social, Economic, and Political History in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire
Her current research-project that she will work on as a EUME fellow in Berlin focuses on the introduction of vocational education and training to orphaned, destitute, and poor children in the urban provincial centers. It is aiming to offer a more nuanced understanding of the specificities of Ottoman educational reform in the provinces, the attempts to rejuvenate Ottoman urban economy, and the newly contemplated concerns for order and security in the cities.
