A historian of the Ottoman world, I write on how Ottomans reckoned with the dizzying pace of change during the long nineteenth century. I narrate a connected history of violence, displacement, and protest in my first book, Island and Empire: How Civil War in Crete Mobilized the Ottoman World (Stanford University Press, 2024). Examining the trans-nationalization of a civil war in 1890s Crete, Island and Empire retells late Ottoman years through the stories of prominent and anonymous islanders. The book demonstrates how the displacement of Cretans gave birth to an organized protest movement within and beyond the empire, shaping the lexicon and practice of protest in the Ottoman world. Currently I am working on two book projects. One of these is a sensory account of the Ottoman Empire with a focus on novel sounds that characterized the 1908 revolution and on familiar sounds endowed with distinct meanings in this period. Another project looks at Ottoman and Spanish empires through the prism of two islands to examine the questions of imperial transformation and decolonization.
Uğur Zekeriya Peçe
Associate Professor
PhD in History, Stanford University (2016);
MA in Southeast European Studies, University of Athens, Greece (2008);
MA in History, Sabanci University, Turkey (2007);
BA in Economics, Bogazici University, Turkey (2003)
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Research Areas
Additional Interests
- Ottoman Empire
- Middle East
- Emotions and Senses
- Violence and displacement
- Revolution and decolonization
Research Statement
Biography
Born and raised in Turkey, Uğur Zekeriya Peçe received his PhD degree in History from Stanford University in 2016. Before making it to California for doctoral work, Uğur was busy experiencing life in the eastern Mediterranean world. Prior to joining the History Department at Lehigh in 2018, he taught at Bard College (History & Middle Eastern Studies) and Harvard University (History & Literature).
Island and Empire (Stanford University Press, 2024)
“Protesting Exile: Cretan Refugee Activists in the Late Ottoman Empire,” New Perspectives on Turkey, 70, (2024): 32-51.
“The Conscription of Greek Ottomans into the Sultan’s Army, 1908-1912,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, 2020: 433-448.
“An Island Unmixed: European Military Intervention and the Displacement of Crete’s Muslims, 1896-1908,” Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 54, no. 4, 2018: 575-591.
Recent Presentations (excluding book talks)
"Can We Hear History? An Auditory Approach to Ottoman Social History," Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Washington D.C., November 22, 2025.
“Bury the Hatchet: Civil War and Peace in Ottoman Crete,” Trinity College Dublin, September 30, 2025.
“Raise Your Voice, Pledge Your Money: Forming Sonic Bonds of Solidarity through Donation Drives for the Ottoman Navy,” Ottoman Auralities Conference, University of Cambridge, May 23, 2025.
Roundtable: “Making and Unmaking of the Ottoman Borders,” New York University, New York, March 6, 2025.
“Against the Sultan and the West: Hüseyin Nesimi’s Critique of Revolutionary Violence in 1890s Crete,” Comité International des Études Pré-Ottomanes et Ottomanes (CIEPO), Tirana, June 21-25, 2024.
“Loud and Funny: In Quest of Sound in Ottoman Satirical Journals,” Workshop on Caricatures as a Sphere of Communication in the Late- and Post-Ottoman Context, Istanbul, March 25-26, 2024.
“Words and Deeds: The Cretan Factor in the Ottoman Empire,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA), Denver, December 3, 2022.
“The Myth of Islamic Fatalism: How Ottoman Peasants Became the Unwanted of Europe in a Climate of Conflict,” The 12th Nordic Conference on Middle Eastern Studies, The Middle East in Myth and Reality, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, September 22-24, 2022.
“Sound of Protest, Color of Displacement: Cretan Refugee Protestors in the Late Ottoman Empire,” New Perspectives on Middle East Migrations, The Khayrallah Center at North Carolina State University, July 11-13, 2022.
“Protest in Exile: Experiencing Displacement in Ottoman Sites of Popular Assembly,” Narrating Exile in and between Europe and the Ottoman Empire/Modern Turkey, University of Amsterdam, November 11-12, 2021.
“Breaking Bread in the Barracks: The Making of a Multi-Religious Army in the post-Revolutionary Ottoman Empire,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA), October 7, 2020.
Teaching
HIST 090 – Big Questions Seminar: What is Freedom?
HIST 095 – Empire, War, and Resistance in the Middle East
HIST/GS 101 – Histories of Globalization
HIST 398/498 – Leaving Home: Migrants and Refugees of the Middle East
HIST 495 – Readings in Transnational Ottoman History