PD Dr. Gül Şen

Academic Profile

Gül Şen’s research covers premodern Ottoman history and historiography (16th-18th centuries)
focusing on the narrative strategies in historiography, legitimacy of rule, transition periods, and
maritime unfree labor (galley slaves and convicts) in early-modern Mediterranean world, as an
extreme form of dependency. Currently, Gül Şen works on convict registers of the Ottoman Naval
Arsenal. Furthermore, she examines war captivity and captivity narratives in the 18th century within the DFG-Priority Program "Transottomanica: Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian Mobility Dynamics."

2 monographs, 1 booklet, 18 academic articles, 3 co-edited volumes, 10 reviews, 4 co-organized international conferences and workshops, 12 pre-organized sessions at the international congresses, numerous international and national lectures and presentations, numerous completed and ongoing B.A. and M.A. theses as first and second supervisor (University of Bonn and University of Heidelberg).

2021
Habilitation and Venia Legendi in Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2012
Ph.D. (magna cum laude) in Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2008–2012
Ph.D. Studies in Middle Eastern Studies, Bonn International Graduate School Oriental and Asian Studies (BIGS-OAS), University of Bonn, Germany

2002–2006
Studies in Translation Studies (German, Turkish, Persian), Middle Eastern Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

since 2020
Lecturer, University of Heidelberg, Germany

since 2020
Privatdozentin/Research Associate, University of Bonn, Germany

2022
Interim Professor for Islamwissenschaft, University of Heidelberg, Germany

2019–2020
Post-Doc Scholarship Holder, University of Bonn, Germany

2018–2019
Post-Doc Fellow, Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, Germany

2016–2018
Principal Investigator of DFG, University of Bonn, Germany

2015–2016
Post-Doc Fellow, Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, Germany

2010–2014
Lecturer, University of Bonn, Germany

2009–2010
Research Assistant, University of Bonn, Germany

2019–2020
Postdoctoral Scholarship of the University of Bonn

2015–2016/2018–2019
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg

2012–2013
Postdoctoral Scholarship of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

2012
Award of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for outstanding academic achievements

since 2022
Board Member of Society for Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT)

since 2022
Board Member as Second Treasurer of International Association for Ottoman Social and Economic History (IAOSEH)

since 2021
Member of the DFG-Priority Program "Transottomanica: Eastern European-Ottoman-Persian Mobility Dynamics"

since 2019
Affiliated Investigator of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies

since 2015
Co-Editor of the "Ottoman Studies," Bonn University Press/V&R

since 2015
Co-Editor of the "Otto Spies Memorial Series," EB-Verlag

2016–2018
individual project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) - approx. € 192,000 ad personam

2012–2013
individual projects funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

  • 2024. "Narrativity and Dependency: The Captivity of an Ottoman Official in St. Petersburg (1771-75)." In Narratives of Dependency: Textual Representations of Slavery, Captivity, and Other Forms of Strong Asymmetrical Dependencies, edited by Elke Brüggen und Marion Gymnich, 161–178. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. Open access
  • 2023. "Between Istanbul and Saint Petersburg: War Captivity as a Part of Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century." In Ege Üniversitesi Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Enstitüsü III. Uluslararası Türkiye-Rusya İlişkileri Sempozyumu Bildiri Kitabı [Proceeding of the III International Symposium on Turkey-Russia Relations. Ege University - Turkic World Research Institute], edited by Vefa Kurban, Hamit Özman, and Recep Efe Çoban, 338–353. Ankara. 
  • 2023. "Between Two Spaces: Enslavement and Labor in the Early Modern Ottoman Navy." In Comparative and Global Framing of Enslavement, edited by Stephan Conermann, Youval Rotman, Ehud Toledano, and Rachel Zelnick-Abramovitz, 133–166. Berlin. Open access
  • 2022. Making Sense of History: Narrativity and Literariness in the Ottoman Chronicle of Naʿīmā. Leiden: Brill.
  • 2022. "Auf Die Galeere!" [To The Galleys!]. DAMALS 11: 58–63. [Turkish translation: "Osmanlı Donanmasında Kürek Cezası." In Yeni Deniz Mecmuası 30: 80–85, 2022.]
  • 2022. As editor. With S. Conermann. The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition: Continuity and Change in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām in the Sixteenth Century, vol. 2. Göttingen.
  • 2022 With A. Bauer. "Transottomanica: Verflechtungen und Mobilitäten. Einführung." [Transottomanica: Interweavings and Mobilities. Introduction]. In Sehepunkte 22(9).
  • 2020. "Galley Slaves and Agency: The Driving Force of the Ottoman Fleet." In Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire, edited by Stephan Conermann and Gül Şen, 131–163. Göttingen.
  • 2020. With S. Conermann. "Slavery is Not Slavery: On Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire. Introduction." In Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire, edited by Stephan Conermann and Gül Şen, 11–27. Göttingen.
  • 2018. Jordan as an Ottoman Frontier Zone in the Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries. UHML 15. Berlin.
  • 2017. As editor. With S. Conermann. Slaves and Slave Agency in the Ottoman Empire. Göttingen.
  • 2017. "Ottoman Servant, Mamluk Rebel? Narrative Strategies in Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Historiography—the Example of Jānbirdī al-Ghazālī’s Downfall." In The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition: Continuity and Change in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Stephan Conermann and Gül Sen, 329–344. Göttingen.
  • 2017. As editor. With S. Conermann. The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition: Continuity and Change in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām in the Sixteenth Century. Ottoman Studies/Osmanistische Studien 2. Göttingen.
  • 2017. With S. Conermann "Introduction: A Transitional Point of View." In The Mamluk-Ottoman Transition: Continuity and Change in Egypt and Bilād al-Shām in the Sixteenth Century, edited by Stephan Conermanna and Gül Sen, 13–32. Göttingen.
  • 2015. "Das Ereignis von Edirne (1703). Astrologie als Strategie zur Herrschaftslegitimation und Kontingenzbewältigung." [The Edirne Event (1703): Astrology both as a Legitimizing Strategy and Coping with Contingency]. In Das Mittelalter 1: 115–138.