Early Modern Ottoman Studies (EMOS) – Conference V

Call for Papers:

Eurasian Entanglements, Imperial Geographies, and Connected Mobilities:
The Ottoman Empire and the Early Modern World
(14th–18th Centuries)

Date: 11–13 May 2027
Host Institution: Central European University (CEU), Department of Historical Studies
Location: Quellenstraße 51–55, 1100 Vienna/Austria
In Collaboration With: Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations: Resources of the Past and Challenges of Diversity
(led by Austrian Academy of Sciences / ÖAW)

The Early Modern Ottoman Studies (EMOS) conference series was inaugurated in 2023 under the auspices of the Historians Association (Tarihçiler Derneği) as a recurring international forum dedicated to cutting-edge scholarship on the early modern Ottoman world. Alternating between general congresses and thematic symposia, EMOS convenes in Vienna for its fifth meeting to situate the Ottoman realm within the connected imperial, commercial, and intellectual currents of early modern Eurasia.

Organized in close academic collaboration with the Cluster of Excellence EurAsian Transformations: Resources of the Past and Challenges of Diversity and the Department of Historical Studies at CEU, this edition of EMOS actively engages the Cluster’s research agenda on trans-imperial governance, cultural and linguistic diversity, and historical connectivity across the Eurasian landmass. Through joint panels, roundtables, and thematic discussions, the conference aims to foster sustained dialogue between Ottomanists and scholars working on neighboring Eurasian realms.

Between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries, the Eurasian landmass was profoundly shaped by the simultaneous consolidation, confrontation, and transformation of composite imperial polities. Moving decisively beyond rigid civilizational divides and traditional center–periphery models, EMOS V interrogates the Ottoman Empire as an active, constitutive agent within these transcontinental dynamics. Hosted in Vienna –a historic contact zone of diplomacy, warfare and cultural translation– the conference invites scholars to explore how Eurasian political cultures, institutional epistemes, trade conduits, and confessional boundaries mutually evolved.

To address these entangled realities, EMOS V encourages multi-archival, comparative, and connected approaches that place Ottoman documentation into dialogue with Central and Southeastern European, Mediterranean, Persianate, Slavic, and South Asian repositories. By bridging text and materiality, high politics and localized actors, the conference aims to generate fresh perspectives on the shared and contested transformations that defined the early modern world.

Suggested Sub-Themes:

We welcome individual paper submissions and panel proposals addressing, but not limited to, the following thematic tracks:

  1. Archives of Empires, Manuscript Cultures, and Textual Repositories
  • Imperial archival practices, chanceries, book-keeping traditions and bureaucratic regimes in Eurasia
  • Courtly, monastic, and private libraries; book patronage; the post-imperial dispersal, displacement, and preservation of manuscripts across Eurasian collections.
  • Methodological strategies for cross-reading fragmented, polyglot archives (e.g., Ottoman, Byzantine, Venetian, Hungarian, Austrian, Polish, Persian and Russian documentation).
  • Material culture of the written word: codicology, paleography, scribal habits, glosses, seals, watermarks, and the paper trade.
  • Digital humanities applications, handwritten text recognition (HTR), corpus linguistics, and computational network analysis in early modern textual corpora.
  1. State Formation, Dynastic Legitimacy, and Imperial Ideology
  • Comparative Eurasian state formation: models of universal sovereignty, sacral kingship, and contested concepts of statecraft.
  • Dynastic succession, enthronement rituals, palace coups, dethronements, and regicide in comparative perspective.
  • Households, ruling elite and social hierarchies: the political agency of royal women, inter-dynastic marriages, factional alliances, kinship networks, elite reproduction.
  • Fiscality, military mobilization, bureaucratic professionalization, and imperial responses to fiscal-military crises.
  • Normative centering/confessionalization, sectarian polemics, communal boundary-making and conversion dynamics.
  • Legal pluralism and adjudication of differences among communities.
  1. Geographies of Power, Borderland Regimes, and Imperial Rivalries
  • Imperial rivalries, defensive frontiers, and shifting borderland regimes (e.g. across Ottoman, Byzantine, Mamluk, Hungarian, Habsburg, Safavid, Mughal, Polish-Lithuanian, and Russian spheres of influence).
  • Borderland societies: garrison communities, amphibious and terrestrial corsairing, cross-border raiding, captive economies, and local intermediary elites.
  • Small kingdoms/tributary states under imperial rule
  • Spatial humanities and representations of space: cartography, chorography, mental maps, and administrative zoning.
  • Coalition-building, frontier truces, and the micro-politics of regional conflict management.
  1. Diplomacy, Peacemaking, and Cross-Border Intermediaries
  • The institutionalization of diplomacy: permanent legations, ad-hoc embassies, diplomatic ceremonial, treaty negotiations, and capitulatory regimes.
  • Formal and informal diplomatic conduits: resident ambassadors, dragomans, renegades, spies, consular agents, and merchant-diplomats.
  • Shared diplomatic legalities, the laws of nations, and normative frameworks governing peace, truces, and maritime law.
  1. Mobilities, Circulation, and Commercial Conduits
  • Overland and maritime trade corridors: caravan itineraries, maritime routes, customs regimes, and transit ports connecting Central Europe, the Balkans, Anatolia, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
  • Responses to global economic transformations: price shocks, monetization, currency flows, bullion circuits, and changes in global trade routes.
  • Forced and voluntary migrations: refugee movements, exile, transhumance, pastoral nomadism, enslavement, and prisoner ransoming.
  • Environmental and ecological exchanges: epizootics, climate fluctuations (the Little Ice Age), disease vectors, and resource management across frontiers.
  1. Knowledge Production, Translation, and Intellectual Networks
  • Polyglot administrative and literary environments; translation, adaptation, and vernacularization practices in scholarship and court life.
  • Trans-imperial circulation of scientific, occult, medical, and philosophical treatises across Eurasia.
  • Historical Network Research (HNR) approaches to early modern epistolary networks, intellectual lineages, and scholarly mobility.

Conference Languages & Submission Guidelines:

Conference Presentation Languages:

Reflecting the multilingual heritage of early modern Ottoman, Eurasian and Mediterranean scholarship, paper and panel presentations may be delivered in English, Turkish, German, French, or Italian. To facilitate vibrant discussion and mutual comprehension across diverse language traditions, speakers presenting in languages other than English are strongly encouraged to accompany their talks with visual aids (e.g., slides or handouts) featuring English summaries or key citations.

Abstract Submission Language:

To ensure an equitable, standardized peer-review process across all thematic tracks by our international Scientific Committee, all proposals and abstracts must be submitted in English.

Individual Paper Proposals:

Must include an abstract in English of maximum 300 words, up to 5 keywords, the intended language of presentation, and a short academic biography (max. 150 words, including institutional affiliation and contact email).

Pre-Organized Panel Proposals:

Thematic panels (3–4 papers) are strongly encouraged. Submissions must be in English and include an overarching panel rationale (max. 500 words), individual abstracts for each paper (max. 300 words each) specifying each paper’s language of presentation, and short academic bios for all participants (including the designated chair/discussant).

Conference Fee:

  • Standard: €120
  • For members of the Historians Association (Tarihçiler Derneği): €80
  • For students: €60

**The registration fee covers conference access, coffee breaks, conference materials, farewell dinner**

 

Travel Grants & Financial Support:

Subject to the availability of funds, the organizing committee aims to provide a limited number of travel and accommodation bursaries specifically for graduate students, PhD candidates, and early-career researchers affiliated with institutions outside the European Union (non-EU). Eligible applicants seeking financial assistance must indicate this at the time of submission by including a brief statement of need (max. 100 words), their current institutional affiliation, and an estimated travel budget alongside their abstract and bio. Grant allocations will be communicated together with the paper acceptance notifications on 1 February 2027.

 

Key Dates:

Deadline for Submissions (Individual Papers & Panels): 15 December 2026

Notification of Acceptance: 1 February 2027

Preliminary Program Announcement: 15 March 2027

Online Submission & Registration Portal: https://historiansnet.com/registration/

Inquiries & Contact: emosconference+2027@gmail.com