History and Sociology of Science
Assistant Professor
Education
Ph.D. University of California - San Diego
M.A. Sabanci University, Istanbul
B.A. St. John's College
My work explores science during one of the most tumultuous periods in Ottoman history. I focus especially on the role of scientific knowledge in the emergence of the early modern Ottoman state. My primary inspirations are the materialist historiography of science and the emerging global history of early modern science. I am something of a generalist, as I work across many different sources and registers, from the Ottoman medical marketplace to minting practices and, from natural philosophy to gunpowder recipes. I am currently completing a monograph with the title, Science without Leisure: Practical Naturalism in Istanbul, 1660-1732.
Research Interests
Science and Translation
Historiography of Non-Western Science
Cultural history of early modern science and technology
Science and philosophy in the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world
Science Studies
Science and religion
Global history
Selected Work
"Early Modern Ottoman Science: A New Materialist Framework," Journal of Early Modern History 21 (2017): 407-419.
“The Copernican Rhetoric of Ibrahim Müteferrika,” in Sietske Fransen, Niall Hodson and Karl Enenkel eds. Translating Early Modern Science Leiden: Brill, 2017, 258-285.
"New Medicine and the Hikmet-i Tabi'iyye Problematic in Eighteenth Century Istanbul," in Tzvi Langermann and Robert Morrison, eds. Texts in Transit in the Medieval Mediterranean. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2016; pp. 222-242.
“Natural Philosophy and Politics in the Eighteenth Century: Esad of Ioannina and Greek Aristotelianism at the Ottoman Court,” Journal of Ottoman Studies 41 (2013): 125-159.
“Islam, Christianity and the Conflict Thesis,” in Geoffrey Cantor, Thomas Dixon and Stephen Pumfrey, eds. Science and Religion: New Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 111-130.
Teaching Fields
History of Early Modern Science
Science and Religion
The Enlightenment
Science Studies
Courses Taught
Spring 2018
STSC 208 Science and Religion: Global Perspectives
STSC 400 Capstone Seminar
