Mark L Stein Professor, History |
Education
Teaching Interests
I teach history for the same reasons that I was drawn to study history in the first place: I want to understand the societies and civilizations of the past in order to better understand our present. In my courses I not only focus on the events and peoples of the past, but also on the methods that historians use to uncover those details. I emphasize using primary sources of all kinds: government records, literature, personal journals, treaties, art and architecture.
My focus is the history of the Middle East. This is a widely misunderstood region yet one that is vital to our highly interconnected, globalized world. I try to help students recognize the preconceptions that they bring to the class and how other people view their own history and that of the world.
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
My research focus is the social and economic history of the Ottoman Empire. This is a broad area, as the Ottomans ruled the Middle East and Southeastern Europe for more than 600 years. Specifically, I have investigated the military frontier between the Ottomans and the Habsburg Empire in Hungary in the 17th century. I am currently working on two projects:
First, I am using Ottoman documents and digital mapping technologies to develop a map of Ottoman fortifications and transport routes along their Habsburg frontier.
The second is a review of the state of the field of Ottoman military history.