(Re)Crafting Knowledge After the Ottomans: Remembering and Forgetting Scientific Legacies in the Post-Imperial Era

In this workshop, we will address the question of transition between the late and post-Ottoman periods from the perspective of former provinces of the Empire, and with a particular focus on scientific and scholarly cultures. We want to ask what has become of scientific authorities and Ottoman scholarly cultures in post-Ottoman contexts. How did scientists from various disciplines (history, geography, medicine, anthropology, legal studies, or others) who were trained or had experience in the former provinces, reevaluate their own canons, methodologies, and analytical frameworks? How did universities and scientific institutions adapt, reinterpret, or discredit the Empire’s intellectual and scientific legacies after 1918? What parts of previous scholarly norms were reused, abandoned, or transformed, and how? Drawing on approaches from field theory (Bourdieu 1976, 2001; Sapiro et al. 2018; Buchholz 2022), contributors will explore the reconfiguration of scientific authority, the persistence of “scholarly ghosts”, and the potential emergence of professional memories of Ottoman knowledge that are distinct from nationalist political narratives. We encourage, where possible, research on transnational academic networks of intellectuals and publishers who reframed, selected, or transformed knowledge.

Echoing recent historiographical debates on the question (for example Philliou 2012; Minawi 2023; Amzi-Erdogdular 2023), we would like to reflect beyond the frequent binary between “rupture and continuity” in imperial practices and focus on the notion of memory of the Empire, particularly on the usefulness of such memory in the post-Ottoman present. Our question is not only what remains of the Ottoman period, but also how and why is the Ottoman era actively remembered, forgotten, or silenced. Who remembers –forgets, or silences – what, why, where and when? From a methodological perspective, we are particularly interested in research focusing on the experiences of individuals and groups who lived and/or remember the period. Types of sources include (but are not limited to): ego-documents (memoirs, diaries), scientific materials (research reports, articles, conferences), institutional and diplomatic records, school textbooks, press and historiographies, as well as legal documents.