Applications must be submitted by December 15, 2024
The winter school will take place between March 17 and 21, 2025
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We invite students to participate in an international winter school devoted to reading and analysing Ottoman manuscript sources, with a particular focus on archival documents. This is the seventh edition of this format, following the summer schools of 2016 in Amman (Jordan), 2017 in Beirut (Lebanon), 2018 in Aix-en-Provence (France) and Ankara (Turkey), 2022 in Wittenberg-Berlin (Germany), and 2024 in Cairo (Egypt).
The 2025 winter school is organised by the Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, in cooperation with the Islamic Studies Department of the University of Halle-Wittenberg, the French Institute of the Near East (Ifpo), the Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan and Central Asian Studies (CETOBaC), the Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds (IREMAM), the Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Vorderen Orients, Abteilung Islamwissenschaft at Universität Heidelberg, the Social Sciences University of Ankara (ASBÜ) and the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB).
The winter school aims to overcome the initial difficulties researchers often face when working with archival documents from the Ottoman period, one of which has to do with technical terminologies no longer in use today. Today, early-career scholars often feel helpless when faced with Ottoman archival material in Ottoman Turkish or other languages used in the Empire, and they need to develop their skills in palaeography and philology. Besides, dialogue and exchange remain limited between the different schools of Ottoman history, particularly between scholars focusing on the analysis of imperial dynamics (who are generally specialists in the Ottoman language) and those who concentrate on the provinces of the Empire and who therefore work on sources produced in local languages.
Application Guidelines
In order to be considered, applications must include:
- a proposal outlining the candidate’s research project (maximum 600 words)
- a curriculum vitae, mentioning language skills (two pages maximum)
- name and contact of two referees that may be contacted for a recommendation.
The applications must be submitted in English.
Applications must be submitted by December 15, 2024.
Reply from the organising committee will be forwarded before mid-January 2025.