Talk by Giancarlo Casale

Historians have long asserted the close connection between ethnology—the practice of systematically describing cultural differences—and the politics of imperial domination. But in this respect, the Ottoman Empire presents an apparent paradox. Despite expanding across a territory that encompassed all or part of nearly 40 modern nation-states, early Ottoman authors almost never attempted to describe the cultural diversity of the empire’s subject peoples. Instead, they began to do so at the end of the seventeenth century—long before the onset of Western modernity, but long after the end of Ottoman imperial expansion. How can this apparent paradox be explained? And what lessons might it hold not only for Ottoman history but for a more general understanding of the relationship between knowledge and empire in the early modern world?

Giancarlo Casale is a historian of the Ottoman Empire and its many connections with the early modern world. My current research explores intersections between the intellectual life of the Ottoman Empire and Renaissance Italy, with a particular interest in antiquarianism, cartography, cosmography, and other forms of early modern science. Casale also has a deep interest in the history of travel literature and ethnographic writing, early modern diplomacy, and the history of maritime technology, as well as the comparative study of early modern empires and early modern slavery. In addition to teaching and research, Casale is currently on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Renaissance Quarterly, Medieval Encounters, and Arabic Humanities. Casale is also a co-editor of the Brill monograph series Translating Cultures in the Early Modern World and, since 2011, he served as executive editor of the Journal of Early Modern History. Casale is currently on leave from the University of Minnesota through September 2023, as the research chair in Early Modern Mediterranean history at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Join us for a student information session on the Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Program. Open to first- and second-year Cornellians, the program provides generous support for you to carry out internationally-focused research of your choice, develop leadership skills that you put into action, and join a global network of like-minded scholars.

Learn more about the programmatic and financial benefits of the Laidlaw Scholars Program, how research and leadership are intertwined, how to approach potential faculty research mentors, and the criteria by which applications will be evaluated. Don't miss this opportunity to get all of your questions answered!

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The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies hosts info sessions for graduate and for undergraduate students. To learn more about funding opportunities, international travel, research, and internships, view the full calendar of spring semester sessions.

A public lecture with Dr. Sa'ed Atshan.

Dr. Sa’ed Atshan is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology at Swarthmore College. He previously served as an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Senior Research Scholar in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Atshan earned a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies (2013) and MA in Social Anthropology (2010) from Harvard University, a Master in Public Policy (MPP) (2008) from the Harvard Kennedy School, and BA (2006) from Swarthmore College.

Atshan is the author of Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique (Stanford University Press, 2020). He is also the coauthor with Katharina Galor (Judaic Studies, Brown University), of The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (Duke University Press, 2020) with a German translation entitled Israelis, Palästinenser und Deutsche in Berlin: Geschichten einer komplexen Beziehung (De Gruyter, 2021). Atshan and Galor also coedited the volume, Reel Gender: Palestinian and Israeli Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Dr. Atshan’s community-based volunteer work is primarily with Quaker civil society organizations (also known as the Religious Society of Friends). He has served as an advisor to Quaker institutions including the Ramallah Friends School, on the multicultural board of Westtown School, on the Corporation of Haverford College, as a spiritual nurturer for the Quaker Voluntary Service (QVS), and on the Board of Pendle Hill. He is currently a board member for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) where he served as Clerk of the Standing Nominating Committee and is presently Clerk of AFSC's Community, Equity, and Justice Board Committee.

“The Intersectionality of Antisemitism, Islamophobia and Racism,” a talk by Ross Brann, the Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies & Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, will begin at 4 p.m. Nov. 16 in the Alice Statler Auditorium in Statler Hall. Cornell President Martha E. Pollack will offer an introduction at the event and it will be livestreamed as a webinar on eCornell.

During the event, Brann will review the intersection of these three forms of hate in history. His talk will be followed by a question and answer period, with questions from the in-person audience.

Register to watch the livestream here.