About Us

Ottoman History Podcast began in March of 2011. It was a modest experiment aimed at finding an alternative form of academic production that explores new and more accessible media and allows for a collaborative approach. Since then we have grown to be one of the largest digital resources for academic discussion concerning the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East. Over the years, our project has incorporated contributions big and small from hundreds of colleagues. Our recorded interviews and lectures, while still largely academic in tone, provide scholarly conversation accessible to a wider public audience.

Click here for a complete episode guide.

Current Recording Team

	Sam Dolbee, Editor in Chief episodes | academia.edu Sam is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Vanderbilt University. He works on the environmental history of the Jazira region, and is interested in agriculture, mobility, and science. Working with Ottoman History Podcast intermittently since 2012, Sam has served as Editor in Chief since 2020.
	Can Gümüş-İspir, Türkçe Editor episodes | academia.edu Can completed her Ph.D. at the Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History, Boğaziçi University. Her work examines the entanglements between sanitation practices and urbanization in late Ottoman Istanbul. Can joined the OHP team in 2018 and is our current managing editor for Turkish language.
	Chris Gratien, Producer & Co-Creator episodes | academia.edu | department listing Chris holds a Ph.D. from Georgetown University and is Associate Professor of History at University of Virginia, where he teaches courses on environmental history and the Middle East. His first book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier, studies the social and ecological transformation of the Çukurova region of modern Turkey from the Ottoman period to the mid-20th century. Since 2011, Chris has been producer of Ottoman History Podcast, conducting more than 200 interviews to date.

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	Önder Eren Akgül episodes | academia.edu Önder completed his Ph.D. at the department of History at Georgetown University and is currently a postdoc in the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies program at Northwestern University. His dissertation examined the history of capitalism and related social and ecological transformations in urban Izmir and rural Western Anatolia in the late Ottoman period. He joined the OHP team in 2018 and currently teaches in the Global & Intercultural Studies Department at Miami University (Ohio).
	Susanna Ferguson, Associate Producer episodes | academia.edu | department listing Suzie received her Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History from Columbia University and is Assistant Professor of Middle East Studies at Smith College. She joined our recording team in 2014 and was Editor in Chief during 2019. She is a frequent host and also is co-curator of our series on Women, Gender, and Sex.
	Matthew Ghazarian, Managing Editor episodes | academia.edu | department listing Matt holds a Ph.D. from Columbia's Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) and is currently a Visiting Assitant Professor at Amherst College. His research studies sectarianism, humanitarianism, and how they unfolded as concepts and practices in nineteenth-century Anatolia, examining this question through the lens of famine, disease, and other hardships. He joined the OHP team in 2015 and has been actively involved in training our new Istanbul-based team members in recording and audio editing.
	Shireen Hamza, Managing Editor episodes | academia.edu | department listing Shireen earned her doctorate at the History of Science department at Harvard University, focusing on science and medicine in the Islamicate Middle Ages. Shireen joined the OHP team in 2016.
	Maryam Patton, Managing Editor episodes | academia.edu Maryam is Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University. Her research explores cultural, intellectual, and scientific exchanges across the early modern Mediterranean. Her dissertation studies the cultural history of time and temporal consciousness in 16th century Istanbul and Venice. In addition to frequently hosting Ottoman History Podcast, she works on sound production for OHP episodes and currently manages our social media. She is also co-producer of our mixtape series The Yayla, as well as the host of Desert Cruising, a longstanding rock and metal radio show.
	Brittany White episodes | academia.edu Brittany White is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. Broadly, she is interested in the African Diaspora in former Ottoman territories. She began recording with Ottoman History Podcast in 2021.