aslı niyazioğlu

ASLI NİYAZİOĞLU
Assistant Professor in History
Koç University History Department
Rumeli Feneri Yolu 34450
Sarıyer, Istanbul Turkey
(90) 212-338-1869
[email protected]
Education
Harvard University
Boğaziçi University
Ph.D., History and Middle Eastern Studies November 2003.
Cambridge, MA
B.A., History
June 1996.
Graduated in departmental first rank with high honours.
Istanbul
Academic Positions
Koç University, Istanbul, Assistant Professor, History Department, September 2006Harvard University, Visiting Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, July-September 2011,
February-July 2010, June-August 2008.
University of Oxford, Departmental Lecturer in Ottoman History, Oriental Institute,
January 2005-September 2006.
Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Fellow in the Program “Cultural Mobility in Near Eastern
Literatures,” October 2003-January 2005.
Harvard-Koç Ottoman Language Summer School, Ayvalık, Instructor of Academic
Turkish, June-August 2000-2004.
Honors and Fellowships
KOLT Teaching Innovation Grant, 2012.
Koç-Harvard University Summer Research Grant, 2011 and 2008.
Harvard University Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Visiting Scholar, Spring 2010.
British Institute at Ankara Research Grant, 2005.
Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Fellowship, 2003-2004 and awarded an extension for the
Winter Semester 2004.
Harvard Grant for Tuition 1996-2003 and Full Stipend 1996-1998.
Harvard University CMES Research Travel Grant, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.
P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship, 1998-1999, 1999-2000.
Harvard University Mellon Summer Language Study Grant, 1997.
Boğaziçi University Alumni Association Award, 1992-1996; Awarded upon History
Department entrance in the first rank.
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Publications
Book
 Aşık Çelebi ve Şairler Tezkiresi Üzerine Yazılar, (Studies on Aşık Çelebi and his
Biographical Dictionary of Poets) co-edited with Hatice Aynur, (İstanbul: Koç
University Press, 2011).
Articles
 “Babalar ve Oğullar: Evliya Çelebi Babasını Neden Sözlü Kaynak Olarak
Kullandı?” Evliya Çelebi ve Sözlü Kaynakları, Ankara: UNESCO Türkiye Milli
Komisyonu, 2012, s.107-114.
 “In the Dream Realm of a Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Biographer: Taşköprizade
and the Sufi Sheikhs” in Sufism and Society: Arrangements of the Mystical in the
Muslim World, 1200-1800 C.E., ed. John J. Curry and Erik S. Ohlander (London
and New York: 2011), 243-58.
 “Aşık Çelebi’ye Rüyaların Söyledikleri” in Aşık Çelebi ve Şairler Tezkeresi
Üzerine Yazılar, co-edited with Hatice Aynur, (İstanbul: Koç University Press,
2011):71-85.
 “Dreams, Ottoman Biography Writing, and the Halveti-Sünbüli Sheikhs of
Sixteenth Century Istanbul” in Many Ways of Speaking About the Self, Middle
Eastern Ego-Documents in Arabic, Persian and Turkish (14th-20th Century),
Ralph Elger and Yavuz Erköse eds. (Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden: 2010): 171-185.
Turkish Translation: “Halveti Sünbüli Şeyhlerinin Rüyaları ve Osmanlı
Biyografi Yazıcılığı” Osmanlılar III Doğu Batı Düşünce Dergisi 53 (2010): 2139.
 “Dreams of the Very Special Dead: Nevizade Atai’s (d.1635) Reasons for
Composing His Mesnevis” Archivum Ottomanicum 25 (2008): 221-33.
 “On Altıncı Yüzyıl Sonunda Osmanlı'da Kadılık Kabusu ve Nihânî’nin Rüyası”
Journal of Turkish Studies/Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları 31/II (2007): 133-143.
 “The Sixteenth Century Ottoman Poet in Reclusion,” in. Poetry’s Voice, Society’s
Norms: Forms of Interaction Between Middle Eastern Writers and Their
Societies, Angelika Neuwirth, Barbara Winckler, Andreas Pflitsch eds.
(Reichert, Berlin: 2006): 225-37.
Turkish Translation: “Uzlet ve On Altıncı Yüzyıl Osmanlı Şairi” Kritik 1
(2008):102-115.
 “Lives of a Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Sufi: Sheikh Bali Efendi and his
Biographers,” in Uygurlardan Osmanlıya Şinasi Tekin Armağanı, Fatma
Büyükkarcı Yılmaz and Günay Kut eds. (Simurg, İstanbul: 2006): 607-20.
Encyclopaedia Article

"The Ruling Institution in the Ottoman Empire." World History Encyclopedia,
Era 6: The First Global Age, 1450–1770. Alexander Mikaberidze, Dane A.
Morrison, Jeffrey M. Diamond, D. Harland Hagler. Santa Barbara, eds., (CA:
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ABC-CLIO, 2011), p. 175-176; avaliable online ABC-CLIO eBook Collection,
http://ebooks.abc-clio.com/reader.aspx?isbn=9781851099429&id=A1729C-1858.
Forthcoming

“How to Read an Ottoman Poet's Dream? Friends, Patrons and the Execution of
Fiġānī (d.938/1532)” Middle Eastern Literatures.

“Ṭashkoprīzāda,” I.B. Taurus Biographical Dictionary of Islamic Civilization.

“Fighānī” Encylopedia of Islam, Third Edition.
Scholarly Presentations (invited)
Harvard-Koç Ottoman Summer School, Cunda, “A World Turned Upside Down? A
Study of Hüdai’s (d. 1628) Initiation ” 2012.
İstanbul Şehir University Workshop “17. Yüzyılda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu: Kriz ve
Dönüşüm” Istanbul, “On yedinci Yüzyıl Osmanlı Biyografilerinde Rüyaları Okumak”
2012.
Sabancı University, Istanbul, “The Ottoman Dream Mirrors and the Seventeenth Century
Ulema” 2012.
CHEP, Istanbul, Conference“The Cultural History of Emotions in Pre-Modernity II,”
“Fear and Pleasure at a Sixteenth Century Ottoman Garden,” 2011.
Université de Paris-Sorbonne, Symposium “Les usage de l’écrit du for privé,” “What do
Dreams Reveal about the Secrets of the Ottoman Lives?”2011.
Gazi ve Bilkent Üniversiteleri, Ankara, Symposium “Evliya Çelebi’nin Sözlü
Kaynakları,” Ankara: “Babalar ve Oğullar: Evliya Çelebi Babasını Neden Sözlü Kaynak
Olarak Kullandı?” 2011.
Harvard University, CMES, Cambridge MA: “How to Read Aşık Çelebi’s Biographies:
Dream of the Executed Poet Figani (d.1537),” 2010.
Harvard University, CMES, Cambridge MA: “What Haunted the Ottomans: Living and
the Dead in a Seventeenth Century Biographical Work,” 2009.
American Research Institute in Turkey, İstanbul: “Dreams, Biography Writing, and the
Halveti-Sünbüli Sheikhs in Late Sixteenth Century İstanbul,” 2008.
Ludwig-Maximilian University Symposium “Convention and Innovation in Ego
Documents” Munich: “This-Worldly Engagements, Other-Worldly Concerns: Yusuf
Sinan (d. 1579) and Writing the Lives of the Sufi Sheikhs,” 2007.
Harvard University, Symposium “Sebeb-i Telif: A Symposium on Ottoman Primary
Sources”: “Dreams of the Very Special Dead: Nevizade Atai’s (d.1635) Reasons for
Composing His Mesnevis,” 2006.
SOAS University of London: “And He Woke up in Terror: Nightmares of the Late
Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Ulema,” 2005.
University of Cambridge, TSG Symposium: “Imperial Visions: Mehmed II and his
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Topkapı Palace,” 2005.
Wissenschaftskolleg Summer Academy in Alexandria: “Literatures and BordersDelimitations, Transgressions” “Images of Youth in the Late Nineteenth-Century
Ottoman Novel and Biography,” 2004.
Freie Universitaet Berlin, “Ottoman Biographers, Life Stories They Remembered and
Revised,” Paper presented for the Project “Ego Documents in Cross-Cultural
Perspective,” 2004.
Freie Universitaet Berlin, Conference “Poetry’s Voice, Society’s Norms: Forms of
Interaction between Middle Eastern Writers and their Societies,” “Dreaming of the Dead,
Partying with the Living,” 2003.
Conference Presentations and Participation
Presenter, Leiden University Eurasian Empires Summer School, “Integration Processes
and Identity formations in Eurasian Empires,” Amsterdam, “Empire-Building and
Biography Writing” 2012.
Chairperson, CHEP Istanbul, Conference “The Cultural History of Emotions in PreModernity II,” “Passions and Impressions,” 2011.
Chairperson, Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Istanbul,
Annual Symposium “Istanbul and Water,” “Ottoman Waterways and the City,” 2010.
Commentator and Chairperson, Koç University Research Center for Anatolian
Civilizations, Istanbul, Mini-Symposia “Towards an Understanding of Ottoman Early
Modernity: Transformations in State, Society, Culture,” 2011.
Presenter, World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies, at the panel “Emotional
Communities in the Middle East and North Africa: Historical and Anthropological
Approaches”: “Fear and Pleasure at a Sixteenth Century Ottoman Party,” Barcelona,
2010”
Presenter, Symposium “The Sixteenth Century Ottoman Biographer (Aşık Çelebi and His
Work)”: “Aşık Çelebi’ye Rüyaların Söyledikleri,” (Aşık Çelebi and Dreams),
Netherlands Institute, Istanbul, 2009.
Presenter, Medieval & Renaissance Forum “Dreams, Imagination, Fantasy”: “Dreams
and Sufi Lives in Late Sixteenth Century Istanbul,” Plymouth New Hampshire, 2009.
Conference and Workshop Organizations
Co-organizer with Himmet Taşkömür, Harvard University, “Osmanlı Hayat Hikayesi
Yazıcılığı Çalışma Grubu Semineri” Workshop at Koç University Research Center for
Anatolian Civilizations, İstanbul, 2011.
Co-organizer with Richard Wittmann, Orient Institut, "Osmanlı'da Okurlar ve Okuma
Biçimleri Üzerine Bazı Gözlemler" Seminar by Tülün Değirmenci at the Orient Institut,
İstanbul 2012.
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Co-organizer with Hatice Aynur from İstanbul Şehir University and Jan Schmidt from
Leiden University, “The Sixteenth Century Ottoman Biographer (Aşık Çelebi and His
Work)”: “Aşık Çelebi’ye Rüyaların Söyledikleri,” (Aşık Çelebi and Dreams),
Symposium at the Netherlands Institute, Istanbul, 2009.
Organizer and Chairperson, Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin, Workshop “Narratives of
Motion: Modernism, Technology, and Literature,” 2004.
University Service
Member of the Faculty Council, since 2012.
Member of the University Archives Project, since 2012.
Member of the Admissions Committee for the Research Center for Anatolian
Civilizations Fellowships, since 2009.
Founder and organizer, History Book Club, since 2009.
Founder and organizer, Ottoman Biography Studies Group, since 2009.
College of Social Sciences and Humanities Dean’s Office Representative for the
History Department, 2008-2012.
Member of Strategic Planning Committee, 2011.
Presentation of research project on Ottoman dreams to the Board of Trustees, 2010.
Founder and organizer, History Workshop with RCAC Fellows, 2010.
Member of the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities Executive
Council, 2009.
Coordinator, Comparative Studies in Society and History Master Program, 2009.
Coordinator, Social Sciences Seminar, 2009-2008.
Community Service
Interviews with Turkish media: TRT television program Hayat+ and newspapers Akşam and
HaberTürk.
Interview for Ottoman History podcast “Dreams in Ottoman Culture, Society and Cosmos”
with Nir Shafir and Chris Graiten.
Interviews for “KUtalks,” four short youtube videos about my research projects to introduce
the research at Koc University for the incoming undergraduate students.
Graduate Thesis Supervised
Deniz Zorlu, “Remembering the Social Movements of the 1968 Era in Turkey,” M.A. Thesis,
September 2011.
Ayşe Nur Sülüş, “Administration of Ottoman Public Dept, Providing a Sense of Security and
Fighting Against Tax Evasion?” M.A. Thesis, January 2010.
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Courses Taught
Koç University:
 Electives and Required Area
Ottoman Imagination: A Cultural History
Travels in Ottoman History with Evliya Çelebi
History of the Ottoman State, 1300-1566
 Core
Society and Culture in the Early Modern Europe
Society and Culture in the Ottoman Empire
History of the Turkish Revolution
 Graduate
Advanced Topics in the History of Culture and Society
University of Oxford
History of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1700
Ottoman Historical Texts (both graduate and undergraduate levels)
Freie Universitaet Berlin
The Ghazal in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Literature (Guest Lecturer in a course
organized by Prof. Angelika Neuwirth)
Harvard-Koç Ottoman Language Summer School
Academic Turkish (graduate)
Languages
Turkish (native), English (fluent), Ottoman Turkish and Paleography (advanced reading
knowledge), Classical Arabic (intermediate reading knowledge), French (intermediate
reading knowledge), Spanish (intermediate), German (elementary), Persian (elementary).
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