Presented By: Center for Armenian Studies
CAS Workshop. Becoming and Unbecoming Imperial Subjects: Mobility, Exclusion, and (Real/Discursive) Borders
Keynote Speaker: Jessica Marglin, Ruth Ziegler Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of Religion, Law and History, University of Southern California
This workshop explores the making and unmaking of Ottoman imperial subjecthood, and its legacy in the post-Ottoman states. It investigates the bureaucratic and legal reforms that enabled to define the Ottoman membership and the limits of belonging. Although the term “imperial citizenship” gained popularity in recent decades, there are doubts about whether citizenship is suitable for the age of empires, since imperial subjecthood was based on a rule of difference and exclusion rather than equality. By contextualizing the Ottoman nationality regime within other colonial empires of the late nineteenth century, the workshop aims to demonstrate how colonial perceptions of governability and malleability informed the question of becoming Ottoman. The late Ottoman governments, especially under Sultan Abdülhamid II and the Committee of Union and Progress perceived Ottoman nationality as a status that could be granted or revoked based on the perceived loyalty or sedition of various ethnoreligious communities.
The workshop integrates the themes of mobility and nationality, exploring how the management of nationality was intertwined with various forms of mobility, such as non-Muslim emigration, Muslim immigration, pilgrimage, exile, and punitive displacement. The Ottoman state's differential treatment of the migrations of diverse ethnoreligious groups created a distinction among its subjects—some enjoyed the freedom to move with state permission, while others faced forced relocation or restrictions on their mobility. This workshop convenes scholars who investigate how various ethnoreligious communities experienced Ottoman subjecthood across different regions, including Istanbul, the Ottoman East, the Gulf, Russian borderlands, and the Balkans. The primary goal is to explore diverse perspectives on subjecthood, nationality, and citizenship, and to assess the inclusivity or exclusivity of Ottoman nationality laws. The workshop aims to illuminate how the bureaucratic methods used to define Ottoman membership were integral to the broader governance strategies employed in the empire's final years.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
9.45-10.00 Welcome & Opening Remarks
Gottfried Hagen & Hazal Özdemir
10.00-11.15 Keynote: Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California
Religion and Legal Belonging in the Ottoman Empire: Lessons from the History of Extraterritoriality in the 18th and 19th Centuries
11.15-11.30 Break
11.30-1.30 - 1st panel: Becoming and Unbecoming Imperial Subjects
Discussant: Devi Mays (University of Michigan); Chair: Julia Phillips Cohen (Vanderbilt University)
• Berke Torunoğlu, Bilkent University
Calculated Contradictions: Ottoman-Russian Cooperation on Defining Imperial Subjecthood, 1858–1864
• Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, Rutgers University
Transimperial Subjects and Interimperial Competition in Habsburg Ottoman Bosnia Herzegovina
• Camile Cole, Illinois State University
What Did it Mean to be Ottoman in the Gulf, c. 1900?
• Marie Bossaert, Université Clermont Auvergne
The Contours of Italianity: Italian Citizenship in the Late Ottoman Empire
1.30-2.30 Lunch for Workshop Participants
2.30 – 4.15 - 2nd panel: Denationalization from Imperial Decree to Practice
Discussant: Melanie Tanielian (University of Michigan); Chair: Gottfried Hagen (University of Michigan)
• Hazal Özdemir, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The Price of Ottoman Nationality: How to Renounce Your Subjecthood at the Turn of the Twentieth Century?
• Emmanuel Szurek, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Ethnic Cleansing via Labor Regulation? The “Law on Trades and Services Reserved to Turkish Nationals” in 1930s Turkey
• Elif Becan, FRS-FNRS, Metices, Université libre de Bruxelles
Negotiating Post-Imperial Exclusion: Intersectional Dynamics of Citizenship Deprivation in Turkey
Register at https://umich.zoom.us/j/93600848029
Cosponsors: U-M Office of Research; Institute for the Humanities
The workshop integrates the themes of mobility and nationality, exploring how the management of nationality was intertwined with various forms of mobility, such as non-Muslim emigration, Muslim immigration, pilgrimage, exile, and punitive displacement. The Ottoman state's differential treatment of the migrations of diverse ethnoreligious groups created a distinction among its subjects—some enjoyed the freedom to move with state permission, while others faced forced relocation or restrictions on their mobility. This workshop convenes scholars who investigate how various ethnoreligious communities experienced Ottoman subjecthood across different regions, including Istanbul, the Ottoman East, the Gulf, Russian borderlands, and the Balkans. The primary goal is to explore diverse perspectives on subjecthood, nationality, and citizenship, and to assess the inclusivity or exclusivity of Ottoman nationality laws. The workshop aims to illuminate how the bureaucratic methods used to define Ottoman membership were integral to the broader governance strategies employed in the empire's final years.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
9.45-10.00 Welcome & Opening Remarks
Gottfried Hagen & Hazal Özdemir
10.00-11.15 Keynote: Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California
Religion and Legal Belonging in the Ottoman Empire: Lessons from the History of Extraterritoriality in the 18th and 19th Centuries
11.15-11.30 Break
11.30-1.30 - 1st panel: Becoming and Unbecoming Imperial Subjects
Discussant: Devi Mays (University of Michigan); Chair: Julia Phillips Cohen (Vanderbilt University)
• Berke Torunoğlu, Bilkent University
Calculated Contradictions: Ottoman-Russian Cooperation on Defining Imperial Subjecthood, 1858–1864
• Leyla Amzi-Erdogdular, Rutgers University
Transimperial Subjects and Interimperial Competition in Habsburg Ottoman Bosnia Herzegovina
• Camile Cole, Illinois State University
What Did it Mean to be Ottoman in the Gulf, c. 1900?
• Marie Bossaert, Université Clermont Auvergne
The Contours of Italianity: Italian Citizenship in the Late Ottoman Empire
1.30-2.30 Lunch for Workshop Participants
2.30 – 4.15 - 2nd panel: Denationalization from Imperial Decree to Practice
Discussant: Melanie Tanielian (University of Michigan); Chair: Gottfried Hagen (University of Michigan)
• Hazal Özdemir, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The Price of Ottoman Nationality: How to Renounce Your Subjecthood at the Turn of the Twentieth Century?
• Emmanuel Szurek, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Ethnic Cleansing via Labor Regulation? The “Law on Trades and Services Reserved to Turkish Nationals” in 1930s Turkey
• Elif Becan, FRS-FNRS, Metices, Université libre de Bruxelles
Negotiating Post-Imperial Exclusion: Intersectional Dynamics of Citizenship Deprivation in Turkey
Register at https://umich.zoom.us/j/93600848029
Cosponsors: U-M Office of Research; Institute for the Humanities
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