I am an Assistant Professor of History at Wesleyan University specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of the early modern Ottoman world (ca. 1300–1700). My research investigates how the Ottomans understood and experienced time, in other words, their ‘temporality.’ In parallel, I study the Mediterranean as a zone of cross-cultural transmission, with particular attention to book history, the history of science, and the circulation of texts and ideas, to and from the Ottoman world.
My current book project, developed from my doctoral dissertation, explores conceptions of time and temporality in the late medieval and early modern Ottoman Empire, tracing how calendars, religious practices, and intellectual traditions shaped how Ottomans perceived, structured, and interacted with time. This work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Commission (Fulbright-Hays DDRA), the Renaissance Society of America, the Delmas Foundation, Villa I Tatti, Princeton University Library, the Newberry Library, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, among others.
I received my PhD in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. I hold an MPhil in European History, with Distinction, from the University of Oxford, where I was supported by an Ertegun Scholarship and was a member of Balliol College. I hold an AB in History, with a minor in Arabic, from Princeton University, where I graduated summa cum laude.
At Wesleyan, I teach courses on the history of time, the cultural and social history of the Ottoman world, and the broader premodern Middle East. I am also a frequent host and producer at the Ottoman History Podcast, where I help shape conversations on new scholarship in the field. Outside of academia, I host “Desert Cruising with Doctor Ahab,” a long-running rock and metal radio show on 88.1FM WESU Middletown, which I began in 2012 at 103.3FM WPRB Princeton.