Call for Papers
Levantines of the Ottoman World
Solo Exhibition
Expression of interest deadline
February 15th, 2022
Notification of acceptance
March 4th, 2022
Manuscript submission deadline
September 30th, 2022
Revised manuscript submission deadline
February 20th, 2023
Publication: June 2023
Release Announcement
We are excited to unveil "Levantines of the Ottoman World: Communities, Identities, and Cultures," a pivotal publication that has just graced the shelves. Released on December 2023 by İbn Haldun University Press, this 336-page volume is a testament to the collaborative effort of scholars from various countries, offering insights into the Levantine history in the Ottoman Empire. For access to the publication, please visit HERE
Call for Paper
Book Project
Levantines of the Ottoman World: Communities, Identities, and Cultures
The wide geographic expanse of the Ottoman Empire, and length of its political existence, presents historians with the challenge of describing a vast, complex and evolving mosaic of communal formations, many of which were unstable and ambiguously defined. Understanding the relationship of these communities to the formulation of individual subjectivity and self-identity during this period remains an even more difficult historiographic puzzle. Alongside major ethnic, religious and linguistic groupings such as Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and Jews, one of the most historically prominent communities of the Empire – and yet, at the same time, among the most amorphous and understudied – are the Levantines. Originating from populations of merchants, diplomats, and other travelers and migrants who settled in the port cities of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires from the lands of Western, Southern, and Central Europe, the Levantines emerged as a multifarious but distinct social grouping with a pivotal role in the history of the Ottoman state. Research into the cosmopolitan world of the Levantines remains inadequate, however, and much remains to be said about their particular modes of living, social interaction, and cultural inheritance.
This book project aims to go beyond the borders of formalistic narratives and to juxtapose a multiplicity of approaches, methodologies, and perspectives in the study of Levantine lives in the Ottoman Empire. We welcome chapters that engage in the current body of scholarship on topics such as Levantine cosmopolitanism, hybridity, marginality, ambiguity, and transnationalism, but we also encourage submissions which critique the centrality of such terminology and theoretical frames in historical scholarship. Ultimately, it is hoped that these chapters will contribute to a deeper understanding of processes of communal and identity-formation in the Ottoman world, and highlight the possibilities of Levantine studies in challenging entrenched disciplinary boundaries.
Proposed chapters might pursue, but are not limited to, the following topics:
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Panoramic approaches to Levantine communities or publications
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Levantine families, households, and domestic culture; labor, intimacy and consumption
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Levantine institutions, clubs, schools, and churches, and other social organizations
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Levantine publications, companies, and commercial enterprises; engaging with port-cities studies and the questions of class formation in the Ottoman Mediterranean
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Cosmopolitanism, transnationalism, and internationalism as a Levantine analytic
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Levantine religious spaces and architecture; Levantine life in urban space and traces/hauntings in the built environment of contemporary cities
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Levantine social and cultural interactions with other communities of the Ottoman world; ambiguities, exchanges, passings and crossings
Submission instructions
We initially request abstract submissions which describe the applicant’s interest in the project. These should be between 200-250 words and outline the intended area of investigation and any relationship to the mentioned topics. Please email these with the title in the subject line by the abstract submission deadline of midnight, 15/02/22. Final manuscripts are strongly encouraged to be limited to 10000 words. Articles in English and Turkish are accepted.
Submission: levantinestudies@sakarya.edu.tr
Style and Citation Guidelines
Notes should appear as footnotes (not endnotes) and be 12 pt, Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and formatted according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition.
Important Deadlines
Expression of interest deadline: February 15th, 2022 at midnight.
Notification of acceptance: March 4th, 2022.
Manuscript submission deadline: September 30th, 2022.
Revised manuscript submission deadline: February 20th, 2023.
Publication: June 2023.
The book will be published by an internationally-recognized publishing house in Istanbul.
Announcement: Our Book on Levantine Studies Has Been Published!
Dear researchers and all those interested in the history and culture of the Levant,
We are grateful for the interest and contributions you have shown towards our project. Following our call for papers in 2022 and 2023, our project's culmination, the book, was successfully published in December 2023 by the internationally recognized Ibn Haldun University Press in Istanbul, albeit a few months behind schedule.
Titled Levantines of the Ottoman World: Communities, Identities, and Cultures, the book primarily sheds light on the history and culture of the Levant from the 19th century onwards. Assembled by a diverse group of scholars, it revisits the Levant's intricate past, challenging conventional narratives. This volume accentuates the formation of unique community bonds, the lives of Ottoman groups, and the realities of Levantine existence through research and narratives.
The book offers panoramic views on Levantine communities, family structures, social organizations, and more. It explores Levantine analytics in the context of cosmopolitanism, transnationalism, and international relations, as well as cultural and social interactions within the Ottoman world. For more information about the book, please visit our Zenodo page HERE
(zenodo.org/communities/levantineottomans)
Thank you once again for your invaluable contributions to this project.
Editors
Erik Blackthorne-O'Barr (Columbia University)
Burhan Çağlar (Sakarya University)