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Zeynep Oktay Uslu
Bogazici University
Occupation
Assistant Professor
Contact
ABOUT
Zeynep Oktay Uslu graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Comparative Literature. She completed her MA in Classical Turkish Literature at Bogaziçi University in Turkey. She obtained her PhD in Islamic Civilization at Sorbonne University École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France. Her dissertation entitled “The Perfect Man in Bektashism and Alevism” focused on the earliest written texts of the Alevis, currently the second largest religious denomination in Turkey. Between 2014-2016, Zeynep worked as a research fellow on the research project “The Islamisation of Anatolia, c. 1100-1500” based at the University of St. Andrews in the UK. She currently holds the position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Turkish Language and Literature at Bogaziçi University in Turkey. She is the author of an edited text with an extensive introduction on 14th century Anatolian dervish literature, a revised version of her master’s thesis, published under the name Mesnevî-i Baba Kaygusuz (Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures, 2013). She is in the process of revising her dissertation into a monograph.
Discipline
Religious Studies/Theology
Sub Areas
Turkish Studies
13th-18th Centuries
Islamic Studies
Ottoman Studies
Geographic Areas of Interest
Turkey
Iran
Islamic World
Specialties
Sufism, Alevism-Bektashism, Comparative Religion,
Vernacularization
Languages
Turkish (native)
English (advanced)
French (advanced)
Osmanli (advanced)
Persian (fluent)
Russian (intermediate)
Arabic (fluent)
Education
PhD | 2017 | Islamic Civilization | Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
MA | 2010 | Turkish Language and Literature | Bogazici University
BA | 2006 | Comparative Literature | Dartmouth College
Abstracts
Kaygusuz Abdâl and the doctrine of the Abdâls of Rûm Alevism as Islam: How Alevi Poetry Forces us to Rethink Shahab Ahmed’s Conceptualization of Islam The Body, Senses and Spiritual Power in Late Medieval Turkish Texts