Last Updated: June 30, 2025
James H. Meyer
Professor, Islamic World History
Montana State University
james.meyer7@montana.edu
Website: www.jhmeyer.net
Employment History
Montana State University, Professor of History, July, 2024-present
Montana State University, Associate Professor of History, 2015-2024
Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, DC. Visiting Fellow, January-August 2011
Montana State University, Assistant Professor of History, 2009-2015
NCEEER Post-Doctoral Fellow, Moscow and Tbilisi, 2009
NEH Grantee, Istanbul, 2008
Columbia University, Harriman Institute, Post-Doctoral Fellow, 2007-2008
Teacher of English as a Second Language, Istanbul, 1992-1999.
Research and Teaching Interests
Geographical: The Turkic-Russian borderlands; Russian/Soviet-Turkish/Ottoman interactions; The Turkic World; Islam in Russia and Eurasia; the Balkans, Tatarstan; Caucasus and Central Asia; the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic; Muslims in Russia and USSR; Middle Eastern and Russian history.
Thematic: human mobility; border-crossers; intellectual and political history; cross-cultural interaction; communication and discourse; the politicization of identity; biography & memoir.
Education and Degrees
Ph.D., Brown University, History, 2001-2007, Dissertation: “Turkic Worlds: Community Leadership and Collective Identity in the Russian and Ottoman Empires, 1870-1914” (Committee chair, Engin Akarlı).
M.A., Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies, 1999-2001, MA Thesis: “Memory and Political Symbolism in Post-September 12 Turkey: A History of the May 27th Debate” (Committee chair, Heath Lowry)
B.A., McGill University, English Literature, 1988-1991
Purdue University, English and French Literature, 1987-1988 (transferred).
Non-Degree Coursework
Kazan State University, Department of Oriental Studies: Arabic language private lessons, August-November, 2005.
Kazan State University, Tatar Language instruction and paleographic training (August of 2002; August 2003-January 2004; August-November, 2005).
Nevskii Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia. Advanced Russian language and paleographic training, January-April, 2004.
St. Petersburg State University (Tatar Language Instruction, Russian Language Instruction, June-July of 2002).
Debrecen University Hungarian Language Summer Course (June-August, 2001). Advanced-level Hungarian language training (completed with honors).
Harvard University Ottoman Language Summer Course (June-August, 2000).
Ankara University TÖMER Turkish Language Course (Completed, 1998).
Books
Red Star over the Black Sea: paperback edition, Oxford University Press, July 2025.
Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and His Generation. Oxford University Press, June 2023.
İmparatorluklar Arası Türkler (Turkish translation of Turks Across Empires by Renan Akman). İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, January 2021.
Turks Across Empires: paperback edition, Oxford University Press, published July 2019.
Turks Across Empires: Marketing Muslim Identity in the Russian-Ottoman Borderlands, 1856-1914. Oxford University Press, November 2014.
Reviews of Red Star over the Black Sea
Russian Review (Vol. 82, Issue 4, October 2023, pp. 754-755); Toplumsal Tarih Akademik (Number 3, December, 2023, pp. 162-164); Middle Eastern Studies (April, 2024, Vol. 60, no: 4, pp. 679-680); English Historical Review, Vol. 139, issue 598, p.400 (August, 2024); Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie No. 190 (6/2024), pp. 301-313.
Review Excerpts for Red Star over the Black Sea
“James Meyer has written a beautiful book…Thoroughly grounded in multi-country archival research, this book reevaluates the impact of Hikmet and his comrades and offers a fresh approach to writing a transnational history…an important contribution to Soviet, Turkish, and global history.” Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky, The Russian Review.
“Beautifully written… Meyer’s meticulously researched book offers the most comprehensive biography of Nâzım Hikmet to date and fills an important gap in the existing literature.” Erdem Sönmez, Middle Eastern Studies.
Reviews of Turks Across Empires
Turkish Review (Sep/Oct 2015, Vol. 5/5, 438-9); Russian Review (Volume 74, Issue 4, October 2015); Canadian Slavonic Papers (Volume 57, Issue 1-2, 2015, 154-5); Middle East Journal (Summer 2015, Vol. 69 Issue 3, 499); Revolutionary Russia (Volume 28, Issue 2, 2015, 197-99); Ab Imperio (3/2015, 330-35); Council for European Studies(January, 2016); Central Asian Survey (Vol. 35/2, 2016, 321-3); Turkish Area Studies Review (Spring 2016 No. 27, 46-7); Journal of World History (Vol. 27, No. 1, March 2016, 168-171); International Journal of Middle East Studies (Vol. 48/2, 2016, 397-8); The American Historical Review (121:3, 2016, 1044-1045); Review of Middle East Studies (Vol. 50/2, August 2016, 211-213); Slavic Review (Vol. 75/4, Winter 2016, 1034-1035); Bulletin des Annales Islamogiques (No. 31, 2016); Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (Vol. 18 No. 2, Spring 2017, 417-436); Sehepunkte (Ausgabe 17), 2017, Nr. 12); Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 65 (2017), 2, 335-336; The Slavonic and East European Review Vol. 96, No. 2 (April 2018), pp. 366-368; Hürriyet newspaper, Istanbul, Turkey, Feb. 5, 2021 (review of Turkish translation); Selçuk University Journal of Studies in Turcology, August 2021 (52): 439 – 446; Central Asiatic Journal, (Volume 67, issue 1-2 (2024), 287-291.
Review Excerpts for Turks Across Empires
"…skillfully crafted and soundly constructed…Meyer's book is a page-turner" –Nazan Çiçek, American Historical Review
"Perhaps the best account of Volga–Ural public life in English" –Adeeb Khalid, International Journal of Middle East Studies
"Path-breaking"—Zaur Gasimov, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas
“A great pleasure to read… the depiction of Kazan Tatars as 'insider Muslims' of Tsarist Russia is simply brilliant."—Şener Aktürk, Turkish Review
Articles/Book Chapters Published/Submitted between 2015 and 2024
“Among Immigrants, Pilgrims, and Pan-Turkists: Trans-imperial Muslims between the Russian and Ottoman States.” Invited contribution to edited volume called Avdet Meselesi: Geç Osmanlı Döneminde Geri Dönüşler. Submittted, awaiting peer review. Expected publication, 2026.
“Scandal in the Comintern: Border-Crossers, the Closing Frontier, and a Turkish Communist Love Triangle in Wartime Moscow.” Book chapter in Mobility Dynamics between Europe and the Near East: Exploring a Cross-Regional Shared History (Eds., Albrecht Fuess, Hedi Hein-Kircher, Julia Obertreis, and Stefan Rohdewald. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner-Verlag, 2024), 167-186. Peer-reviewed.
“Echoes across the Iron Curtain: The Letters of Münevver Andaç to Nâzım Hikmet.” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 56, No. 4 (2020), 664-679. Peer-reviewed.
“Muslims in Russia and the Successor States,” 10,000-word encyclopedia entry for Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press. May 2019. Published online: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.129. Peer-reviewed.
“Children of Trans-Empire: Nâzım Hikmet and the First Generation of Turkish Students at Moscow’s Communist University of the East.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association Vol. 5/2 (2018), 195-218. Peer-reviewed.
“Central Asia,” Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, 2nd Edition. (Richard C. Martin, ed., New York, NY, MacMillan USA, 2016). 5000-word encyclopedia entry reviewed by editorial board.
Articles Published prior to August, 2015
“Speaking Sharia to the State: Muslim Protesters, Tsarist officials, and the Islamic Discourses of Late Imperial Russia.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 14,3 (Summer 2013), 485-505. Peer-reviewed.
“The Economics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Money, Power, and Muslim Communities in Late Imperial Russia.” Book chapter appearing in edited volume entitled Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts (New York: Routledge, 2011), 252-270. Peer-reviewed.
“Division and Alliance: Mass Politics within Muslim Communities after 1905.” Working Paper produced for the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research as per conditions of an NCEEER grant which had been awarded to me previously. Placed in NCEEER’s Toumanoff Library. October, 2009. Reviewed by editorial board.
“For the Russianist in Istanbul and the Ottomanist in Russia: A Guide to the Archives of Eurasia.” Ab Imperio, 4/2008, 281-301. Peer-reviewed.
“Immigration, Return, and the Politics of Citizenship: Russian Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1914.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 39:1, February 2007, 15-32. Peer-reviewed.
Book Reviews, 2015-2024
Review of Danielle Ross, Tatar Empire: Kazan’s Muslims and the Making of Imperial Russia. Journal of Islamic Studies, Volume 35, Issue 2, May 2024, 271–273.
Review of Krista Goff and Lewis Siegelbaum, editors, Empire and Belonging in the Eurasian Borderlands. Russian Review, July 2020.
Review of Charles King’s Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul. Bustan: The Middle East Book Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2018), 93-98.
Review of Eileen Kane’s Russian Hajj: Empire and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. American Historical Review, Volume 122, Issue 3, 1 June 2017, 807–808.
Review of Agnes Nilufer Kefeli’s Becoming Muslim in Imperial Russia: Conversion, Apostasy, and Literacy. Nationalities Papers. Vol. 44/6, (December 2016), 1005-1007.
Review of Elena Campbell’s The Muslim Question and Russian Imperial Governance. Russian Review (Vol. 75/1, January 2016, 155-6).
Review of Toni Alaranta’s Contemporary Kemalism: From Universal Secular-Humanism to Extreme Turkish Nationalism. International Journal of Turkish Studies (Vol. 21, No. 1/2, 2016).
Book Reviews, 2009-2015
Review of Quintin Barry’s War in the East: A Military History of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Russian Review, (73:1, January, 2014, 132-3).
Review of Michael Reynolds’ Shattering Empires: the Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908-1918. Journal of World History. (24:1, March 2013, 242-4).
Review of Eugene M. Avrutin's Jews and the Imperial State. Social History. (Vol. 36/4, 2011, 518-9).
Non-Scholarly Articles Published prior to Graduate School
“Turks Smell a Rat as Amnesty Quake Rocks Country.” New Europe, September 13-19, 1999.
“Çiller, Refah and Susurluk: Turkey’s Troubled Democracy.” East European Quarterly, XXXII, No. 4, Winter, 1998.
“The Macedonian Enigma.” South Slav Journal, Volume 19, Spring-Summer 1998.
“Çiller’s Scandals.” Middle Eastern Quarterly, Volume IV, Number 3, September 1997.
“Turkey, Greece, and NATO’s Integrating Influence.” Turkish Daily News, August 5, 1997.
“Noisy Nights in Turkey as Opposition Grows Louder.” New Europe, March 16-22, 1997
“Interpreting Turkey’s Elections.” New Europe, January 14-20, 1996.
“The Screaming Man of İstiklal.” Balkan News (Athens, Greece), July 14, 1995.
Media & Podcast Appearances since August 2015
Interview with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle on Russia-Ukraine war. January 17, 2025.
Podcast interview with Reuben Silverman, New Books Network podcast, in connection with the release of my book Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. May 17, 2023.
Podcast interview with William Armstrong, Turkey Book Talk podcast. Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. August 8, 2023.
Television interview with local CBS affiliate (KBZK) in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This interview was broadcast and later posted to the station’s website. February 24, 2022.
Interview, Eurasianet.org. “Turkey and Russia: History Fuels Rancor.” February 29, 2016.
Podcast interview with my undergraduate student, Iain Nolen-Weathington on the History Roundtable. April 24, 2016.
Media and Podcast Appearances prior to August, 2015
Podcast interview, Ottoman History Podcast, in connection with the release of my book Turks Across Empires: Marketing Muslim Identity in the Russian-Ottoman Borderlands. February 15, 2015.
Television interview with local NBC affiliate KTVM in connection to the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and Israeli/Hamas fighting in Gaza. July 17, 2014.
Television interview with local ABC/Fox affiliate in relation to Russia’s annexation of the Crimea. April 4, 2014.
Television interview, statewide NBC broadcast of “Montana Today” in relation to Russia’s annexation of Crimea. April 2, 2014.
Website/blog: Since 2008 I have maintained a website and blog, called “Jim Meyer’s Borderlands,” which discusses events taking place in the Middle East and former USSR.
Foreign Language Proficiency
Turkish: Speak, read, and write at high level of fluency.
Russian: Speak, read, and write at level of high fluency.
Volga Tatar: Speak and read at level of high fluency. Can read Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin scripts, including Arabic-script paleography.
Ottoman Turkish: Advanced. Can read printed and rika-script documents at advanced level.
Azeri: Advanced. Can read handwritten/printed Arabic, Cyrillic and Latin scripts.
Arabic: Received three years of undergraduate-level study and one year of private tutoring. (2001-2005). Use mostly as ‘auxiliary’ language to help with reading documents in Ottoman and Arabic-script Turkic languages.
Hungarian: Intermediate. Two years of private tutoring (1996-1998). Completed (with honors) advanced-level course at Debrecen University (2001).
French: Read and speak at advanced level.
Italian: Read and speak at advanced level.
German: Basic. Am able to read limited passages of literature related to my research with dictionary. Audited German reading course at Brown University (2006).
Presentations and Invited Lectures since 2015
“Who was a White Russian? White Russians and Russian Refugees in Interwar Istanbul.” To be presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Slavic East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), November, 2025.
“Unwanted Guests: Russian Refugees in Interwar Turkey.” MESA (Middle East Studies Association) annual meeting. Online. November 14, 2024.
“Across the Iron Curtain by Motorboat: Nâzım Hikmet's Flight to the Eastern Bloc.” Belgrade Community Library, Belgrade, MT. February 8, 2024.
“Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Border-Crossing Generation” (online presentation, 50-minute version). Bosphorus University Nâzım Hikmet Research Center. January 15, 2024.
“MSU College of Letters and Science Authors’ Night Reception.” Featured book/author. Hour-long discussion of my book with Dean Yves Idzerda in front of audience. Montana State University Alumni Foundation Great Room, December 5, 2023.
“Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Border-Crossing Generation” (20-minute version). MESA annual meeting, Montreal, Canada, November 4, 2023.
“Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation.” Anglo-Turkish Society. London, United Kingdom. Online book talk, September 18, 2023.
Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association book talk and panel regarding Red Star over the Black Sea: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation. June, 2023.
“Russia and Ukraine: Past and Present.” Public lecture held at Belgrade Community Library, Belgrade, MT. February 9, 2023.
“Poet on the Run: Nâzım Hikmet and his Generation in Turkey and the Soviet Union.” Guest lecture at the University of Texas at Austin, Center for Middle Eastern Studies. September 27, 2022.
Panelist: “Sabiha Sertel’s Struggle for Modern Turkey: Justice, Activism, and a Revolutionary Female Journalist.” Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association book talk and panel. May 13, 2022.
“A Wary Embrace: Nâzım Hikmet’s Flight to the USSR.” ASEEES annual meeting, New Orleans, LA, December, 2021.
“Grumpy Old Communists: The Ageing Rivalries of Turkish Communist Party Leaders in the Late Cold War East Bloc.” Presented at annual ASEEES meeting. Washington, DC., November 2020.
“From Pan-Turkism to Turkish Communism: Language and Ideology in the Russian-Turkic Borderlands.” Produced for invited workshop called “The Quest for Modern Language between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.” University of Chicago. In-person workshop canceled due to pandemic, papers posted virtually, March 12-13, 2020.
“Escape to the East: Nâzım Hikmet and the Early Cold War Borderlands.” Presented at MESA annual meeting. New Orleans, LA. November 16, 2019.
“Scandal in the Comintern: A Turkish Communist Love Triangle in Wartime Moscow.” Paper presented at ASEEES annual meeting. Boston, MA. December 6, 2018.
“Turkish Perceptions of the Arab Middle East.” Montana State University, Middle East Partnership Initiative/Office of International Programs, July 19, 2018.
“Closing Doors: The Turkish and Soviet Lives of Nâzım Hikmet.” Montana State University, Department of History, March 22, 2018.
“Nâzım Hikmet in the Soviet Archives.” Middle East Studies Association annual conference, November 20, 2017.
“Nâzım Hikmet: Turkish Communists and Soviet Dreams in the Lives of a Renegade Poet.” Department of History & Philosophy, Montana State University, Friday, October 6, 2017.
“Turkish Foreign Policy.” Montana State University, Middle East Partnership Initiative/Office of International Programs, July 28, 2017.
Presentations and Invited Lectures, 2009-2014
“Russia and Islam: Themes and Variations.” Harvard University, Davis Center for Russian Studies. October 16, 2015.
“Turks Across Empires.” Book talk at ARIT (American Research Institute in Turkey). July 13, 2015.
“Learning from Turkey.” Montana World Affairs Council, ‘Discover Turkey’ workshop, Bozeman Public Library. March 14, 2015.
“Turks Across Empires: Marketing Muslim Identity in Russia and Istanbul” presented at Middle East Studies Association annual conference. November 25, 2014. Washington, DC.
“Tough Times in the Middle East: Turkey, the Kurds and the Islamic State.” Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture, November 12, 2014. Bozeman, Montana.
“Russia in Crimea: What Comes Next?” Emerson Center for the Arts & Culture, Weaver Room. Thursday, April 3, 2014. Bozeman, Montana.
“From the Ottoman Past to the Turkish Present: Talking Turkey Today.” Montana World Affairs Council, ‘Discover Turkey’ workshop. Bozeman Public Library, Saturday, March 15, 2014. Bozeman, Montana. ‘
“From Turgut Özal to Taksim Square: Liberalizing and Stifling Expression in an Era of Growth.” Presented at University of Copenhagen, ‘Growth: Critical Perspectives from Asia’ workshop. June 13-14, 2013. Copenhagen, Denmark.
“Learning from Turkey: What can Ottoman and Turkish History Teach Us?” Montana World Affairs Council, ‘Discover Turkey’ workshop for Montana K-12 teachers. April 6, 2013. Bozeman, Montana.
“Among Spies, Pilgrims, and Pan-Turkists: Trans-Imperial Muslims in the Late Imperial Era.” Figurations of Mobility workshop, Humboldt University. November 22-24, 2012. Berlin.
“The Porous Frontier: Muslim cross-border travelers between the Russian and Ottoman states.” Annual conference of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) at Columbia University. April 19, 2012. New York.
“Building the Border: Russian and Ottoman approaches to cross-border mobility in the late imperial era.” Presented at MESA national conference, December 2, 2011. Washington, DC.
“Divided Communities: Russian Muslim Leadership Politics after 1905.” Presented at ASEEES national conference, November, 18, 2011. Washington, DC.
“Muslims and the State in Late Imperial Russia and Today.” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, May 16, 2011. Washington, DC.
“Politicizing Islam: Muslim Protesters, Tsarist Officials, and the Crisis of State Sharia in Late Imperial Russia.” Georgetown University, The Russian History Seminar of Washington. May 6, 2011. Washington, DC.
“Moving Muslims: Trans-imperial people between the Russian and Ottoman states.” Presented at workshop entitled ‘Muslim identities and imperial spaces: networks, mobility, and the geopolitics of empire and nation. Stanford University, Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. April 7-8. 2011. Palo Alto, California.
“Identity Freelancers: Yusuf Akçura and Ahmet Ağaoğlu in Russia and the Ottoman Empire.” Presented at World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies. July 22, 2010. Barcelona.
“Moving People and Suspect Subjects: Russian Muslims, Travel, and the Ottoman Empire.” Paper presented at workshop entitled ‘Islam and Empire.’ Osaka University. January 23-24, 2010. Osaka.
“Politicizing Islam: Tsarist Officials and Protesting Muslims in Russia’s Volga Region, 1870-1905.” Princeton University, Department of Near Eastern Studies, December 7, 2009. Princeton, New Jersey.
“Imperial Fathers and National Sons: Self-Narration and Elite Muslim Families in the Late-Imperial Volga Region.” Presented at American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) annual conference, November 15, 2009. Boston.
“Fear of Movement: Tsarist Officials and Muslim Mobility in Late Imperial Russia.” 2009 Fisher Forum, Russian East European and Eurasian Center of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Workshop entitled ‘Russia’s Role in Human Mobility- Historical and Contemporary Perspectives,’ June 18-20, 2009. Champaign, Illinois.
Archival Research Experience
Hoover Institution, (Palo Alto, CA, USA), May, 2025.
US National Archive and Records Administration, (College Park, MD, USA), May-June, 2024.
Bryn Mawr Library Archives (Bryn Mawr, PA), May, 2024.
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives/Republican Archives (Istanbul), December 2023.
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives/Republican Archives (Istanbul), May-June, 2022.
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Moscow), May-June, 2019.
International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam, Netherlands), May, 2018.
US National Archive and Records Administration, (College Park, MD, USA), November, 2017.
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives/Republican Archives (Istanbul), July, 2017
Aziz Nesin Vakfı Archive (Istanbul), July, 2017.
State Archive of the Russian Federation (Moscow), February-April 2017
Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (Moscow), Feb. 2016-April 2017
Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Moscow), Oct. 2016-April 2017
International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam, Netherlands), August 2016
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive (Istanbul), Sept-Oct. 2016.
Georgian National Historical Archive, (Tbilisi), June-July, 2013
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive, (Istanbul), July, 2012
Georgian National Historical Archive, (Tbilisi, Georgia), April-May, 2009
Kutaisi Central Archive (Kutaisi, Georgia), April, 2009
Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Adjaria, (Batumi, Georgia), April, 2009
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive, (Istanbul), September 2008-April 2009
Central State Historical Archive, Republic of Bashkortostan, Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russian Federation. July-August, 2008
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, (Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation), July, 2007
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan (August-November, 2006).
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive, (Istanbul), July-August, 2006.
State Archive of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, (Simferopol’, Republic of Crimea), June-July, 2006
Azerbaijan State Historical Archive (Baku), August, 2005
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, April 2005-August 2005
Prime Ministry Ottoman Archive, (Istanbul), 2004-April 2005
Azerbaijan State Historical Archive, (Baku), July-November, 2004
Central State Historical Archive, Republic of Bashkortostan, June, 2004
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, April-June, 2004
Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (Moscow), March-April 2004
Russian State Historical Archive (St. Petersburg), January 2004-March 2004
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, August 2003-January 2004
National Archive of the Republic of Tatarstan, July-August, 2002
Russian State Historical Archive, June-July, 2002.
Fellowships and Grants since 2015
Montana State University, Faculty Excellence Grant ($5000). Awarded, May, 2025.
Montana State University. One-term sabbatical. Spring, 2026.
Montana State University, Research Enhancement Award ($1500). Awarded, September, 2024.
Montana State University, Faculty Excellence Grant ($5000), awarded May, 2022. Used for research in Istanbul, December 2022-January 2023.
Montana State University, Faculty Excellence Grant ($5000), used to research in Istanbul in summer of 2022.
Montana State University. Research Enhancement Award ($2500), 2020.
Montana State University. Scholarship and Creativity Grant, used for research in Istanbul, FY 2019/2020.
Montana State University, Research Enhancement Award, used to research in Amsterdam and Moscow, July 2019.
Montana State University, Faculty Excellence Grant, used to research in Amsterdam, Budapest, and Istanbul, May-June, 2018.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award. Used to attend and present paper at MESA annual conference and research in US National Archives, November 2017.
J. William Fulbright US Scholar Research Grant, 2016-2017. Used for the conducting of research in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia during the 2016-2017 academic year.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Scholarship and Creativity Grant, March, 2016. Used to pay for several research trips to Istanbul and Amsterdam between July 2016 and June of 2017.
Montana State University. Full sabbatical, 2016-2017 academic year.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award, February, 2015.
Fellowships and Grants, 2009- 2015
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award, October, 2014.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Scholarship and Creativity Grant. May, 2014.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Faculty Excellence Grant, May 2013.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award, September 2012
National Council for East European and Eurasian Studies. Short-Term Research Grant. June, 2012.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award, September 2011.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Scholarship and Creativity Grant. April, 2011.
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C. Kennan Institute Research Scholarship, January-August 2011.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Research Enhancement Award. September, 2010.
Social Science Research Council, “Teaching Islam in Eurasia” grant, October 2009.
Montana State University, College of Letters and Science. Faculty Short-Term Development Leave support. November, 2009.
National Endowment for the Humanities-American Research Institute in Turkey, Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2008-2009.
Harriman Institute, Columbia University, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2007-2008.
National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, National Research Competition fellowship grantee, 2007-2009
Fellowships and Grants prior to 2009
National Endowment for the Humanities-American Research Institute in Turkey, Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, 2008-2009
Harriman Institute, Columbia University, Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 2007-2008
National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, Research Fellowship for six months in Russia and Georgia, 2007
National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, Summer Research
Grant, 2007 (declined).
Institute of Turkish Studies, Post-Doctoral Summer Research Grant for Turkey, 2007.
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), Research Fellowship for three months in Turkey and Ukraine, 2006.
Brown University, Dissertation Write-up Fellowship, 2006-2007.
John Lax Dissertation Fellowship, Brown University Department of History, 2005.
J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship, Russia, 2003-2004
Fulbright-Hays DDRA Scholarship (Principal Grantee), 2003-2004 (Declined)
International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX), IARO Program grant for four months in Azerbaijan, 2004.
American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT), Dissertation Fellowship for six months in Turkey, 2004-2005.
Social Science Research Council, Pre-dissertation grant for Russia, Summer 2003.
ACTR/ACCELS, Pre-dissertation grant for Russia, Summer 2002.
Institute of Turkish Studies, Pre-dissertation grant, 2002 (Declined).
Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, Travel Grant, 2002.
William G. McLoughlin Travel Grant, Brown University, 2001.
ACTR/ACCELS, Central and East European Language Study Fellowship, Hungary, Summer 2001.
Courses Taught (* indicates that I created the course)
HSTR 135D: The Modern Middle East*
HSTR 359: Russia to 1917
HSTR 375: Eurasian Borderlands: The Breakup of Yugoslavia*
HSTR 360: Eastern Europe and the Cold War*
HSTR 407: The USSR: Rise, Fall, and Aftermath*
HSTR 468: From Empire to Republic: The Making of Modern Turkey*
HSTR 491: Women and Gender in Islam*
HSTR 469: Memoir and Biography in the Post-Socialist World*
HIST 512: Topics in World History (graduate seminar)
HIST 540: Historical Methods (graduate seminar)
Professional Affiliations
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES, since 2001)
American Historical Association (AHA, 2007)
Middle East Studies Association (MESA, 2000)
Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS, 2003)
Graduate Student Committees since 2015
Robert Elliott (PhD, committee chair, 2023-present)
Matthew Stump (PhD, committee chair, 2021-present)
Serkan Oğul Tuna (University of California-Irvine), PhD committee member, May 2023-May 2024.
Kim Kohn (MA, committee chair, 2022-present)
Ethan Bezzek (MA, 2021-2023)
Anthony Worman (MA) (2021-present)
Gunnar Richey (MA, 2020-2022)
Tim Turnquist (MA, 2014-2016)
Graduate Student Committees, 2009-2014
Sasha Rife (MA, 2012-2014)
Robin Hardy (PhD, 2016)
Cort Felts (MA, 2011-2013)
Derek Akin (MA, 2010-2012)
Other Service since 2015
Member, Promotion and Tenure Committee, Montana State University, Department of History & Philosophy, 2010-2013, 2015-2016, 2024-present.
Organizer, panel called “Biographies Across Borders: New Approaches to Writing Life Stories into History.” MESA annual conference, Montreal, Canada, Nov. 4, 2023.
Chair, Assessment Committee, Department of History and Philosophy, Montana State University, January 2020-present.
Chair, panel called “Anticommunism in Turkey.” MESA annual conference, Montreal Canada, Nov. 3, 2023.
Member, Faculty Senate (elected position), Montana State University. August 2015-2020, 2023-present.
Faculty Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta/History Honor Society, Montana State University, 2009-2014, 2022-2023.
Member, cohort hire search committee, Department of History and Philosophy, 2022-2023.
Discussant, ASEEES panel called “From Perceptions to Policies: Russian-Turkish Relations at the Crossroads (1914-1939),” Dec. 2, 2021.
Organizer, panel called “Communist Internationals: The Lives and Networks of Foreign Communists in the USSR.” ASEEES annual conference, Washington, DC. November 7, 2020.
Discussant, for ASEEES panel called “Panel Mobility, Identity, and Performance in the Southern Caucasus.” Washington, DC, November 7, 2020.
Member, Promotion & Tenure Committee, College of Letters and Science (elected position), 2020-2022.
Discussant, for ASEEES panel called “From Perceptions to Policies: Russian- Turkish Relations at the Crossroads.” ASEEES annual conference, New Orleans, Dec. 3. 2019.
Organizer, First Friday speaker series, Department of History & Philosophy, Montana State University, October 2017-March 2020.
Member, Core Committee (University), 2019-2020
Organizer, panel called “Comintern Stories: Internationalism and Intrigue in the USSR and Beyond." ASEEES annual conference, Boston, MA. December 8, 2018.
Discussant for panel called "Intricate Arrangements: Politics Vis-a-Vis Gender, Law, and Literature in the North Caucasus." ASEEES annual conference, Boston, MA. December 7, 2018.
Member, Modern Languages and Literatures/History & Philosophy Search Committee (modern Germany), 2017-2018.
Panel Member, interviewing committee, Fulbright Visiting Scholars Program, Russia. Moscow, Russia. December 1-2, 2016.
Panel Member, interviewing committee, Fulbright Faculty Development Program, Russia. Moscow, Russia. October 21, 2016.
Member, Graduate Committee, Department of History & Philosophy, 2012-2023.
Faculty Senate alternate, Montana State University, November 2014-August 2015
Discussant, panel entitled ‘Reframing Refugees: Immigrants and Settlement Policies in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Republican Turkey.’ Middle East Studies Association, annual convention, Washington, DC, November 24, 2014.
Chair, panel entitled ‘Managing the Periphery Across the 1917 Divide,’ ASEEES annual conference. San Antonio, TX, Saturday, November 22, 2014.
Member, Executive Committee, Department of History, Montana State University, 2014-2016.
Member, Asian Studies Committee, Montana State University, 2014-present.
Member, University Curriculum and Programs Committee, Montana State University, 2013-2016.
Member, University Facilities Advisory Committee, Montana State University, 2013-2016.
Faculty Advisor, Turkish Students’ Association, Montana State University, 2012-2015.
Service, 2009-2015
Member, Promotion and Tenure Committee, Montana State University, Department of History & Philosophy, 2010-2013, 2015-2016, 2024-present.
Faculty Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta/History Honor Society, Montana State University, 2009-2014, 2022-2023.
Member, interviewing committees, Boren and Fulbright fellowships. Montana State University, 2012-2013.
Discussant, ‘Mapping Nations,’ at ‘Mapping History’ Conference, Montana State University Department of History and Philosophy. 320 Ranch, Montana, October 5, 2012.
Moderator, Bridging World Regions: the Turkic Connection symposium, University of Virginia, February 25-26, 2011.
Panel chair, ‘Forging Networks in Peace and War: Rethinking the ‘Social’ in Late Imperial Russia (1856-1917).’ ASEEES annual conference, Los Angeles, CA. November 21, 2010.
Panel chair, ‘‘War and Society in the Late Ottoman Empire.’ MESA annual conference, San Diego, CA. November 20, 2010.
Contributor, SSRC project ‘Teaching Islam in Eurasia’ project, 2009-2010. Worked with collaborator from Uzbekistan (Shovosil Ziyadov) to produce an agenda-setting report identifying future research priorities for the SSRC pertaining to the teaching of Islam in Eurasia and the study of Islamic education.