Stefano Taglia, Ph.D.

Bio

I am an historian of the Near and Middle East, with a specific focus on the late Ottoman Empire. My research has focused on Ottoman intellectual and political history, towards the end of the 19th and the early 20th centuries and, lately, I have shifted my interest to social, medical and bureaucratic history with an emphasis on the relationship between the Ottoman state and drug addiction.

Project bio 

My current research investigates the relationship between the state, cannabis, cannabis smugglers and users, in the 19th century Ottoman Empire. I analyse documents from the Ottoman archives, medical treatises, popular literature, and period journals, to understand how the Ottoman state positioned itself vis-à-vis the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of cannabis. I am interested in the Ottoman state’s approach to members of society who had fallen into substance abuse for two main reasons. A growing interest in the well-being of the population and the publication of medical enquiries into addiction point towards the government taking up a role similar to that of health provider. Simultaneously, the policies implemented on distribution and use, as well as the taxes levied on cannabis farming, point towards a purely pragmatic stance of the state when in need of raising cash. I additionally analyse the nature and scope of botanical and medical treaties published in the period to assess the inspiration of such works in order to trace the flow of ideas across borders. As these studies highlight a growing emphasis on medical rather than moral aspects connected with cannabis use, they offer an interesting and novel perspective in their assessment of prolonged consumption in comparison to the popular literature of the time. Furthermore, by tracing the movement of cannabis, my research also shed light more generally on illicit trade routes. This research has resulted in the submission of one article (awaiting feedback), titled “Ambivalent on a High,” the translation of selected extracts from an Ottoman booklet on cannabis addicts published in 1912 (I am selecting the appropriate venue), and an article to be written on a comparative analysis of how two imperial entities, the British and the Ottoman, behaved towards the production, distribution and consumption of cannabis and the development of the respective legal systems and medical fields on the subject. By looking into this, I aim at de-exceptionalise Ottoman history by positioning it in a global setting and, simultaneously, portray the experiences of the British Empire outside a solely European/Western framework.

AREAS OF INTEREST

• Modern Middle East
• Ottoman history
• Intellectual history
• Ottoman minorities
• The making of modern Turkey and transformation of the Middle East from 19th and 20th century
• Ottoman modernization and the concept of productivity
• Social History
• Drugs and stimulants in the wider Middle East

EDUCATION

2012  Ph.D. in Ottoman History, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London 

2000  MA Middle East Area Study (SOAS)

1997  BA International Affairs, John Cabot University, Rome

ACADEMIC CAREER

2014-          Oriental Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague

2013-2014  New York University on London (NYUL) – Lecturer in Middle Eastern history

2013-2014  The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London – Lecturer in history of the Islamic world

2010-2014  SOAS – Senior Teaching Fellow in the History of the Near and Middle East

2009/2010  St. Mary’s University College – Visiting Lecturer in Ottoman history

2008-2010  Birkbeck College – Sessional Lecturer in History of the Middle East

GRANTS AND RESEARCH PROJECTS

• 2018-2019 Research Grant Strategie AV21, the Czech Academy of Sciences – Religion and State Ideology in the Middle East and Asia
• 2018 Research Grant Strategie AV21, the Czech Academy of Sciences – Nation Building and Religious Identity in the Middle East and Asia.
• 2017-2018 Research Grant Strategie AV21, the Czech Academy of Sciences – Non-Western Freemasonry: Hidden Loci of Alternative Power.
• 2004-2005 Research Grant: SOAS (2004-2005) – Archival Research Fund, at Princeton University, USA.
• 2013 Language Grant: Ottoman Studies Foundation to attend course in Ottoman
• Conference Grants:  2010 Learning and Teaching Unit, SOAS – Participation at WOCMES.

                                          2008 Royal Historical Society - Participation at MESA.

                                          2008 History Department, SOAS - Participation at MESA.

OTHER ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

• 2020 – Series Editor, “Encounters in the Middle East and Asia,” Edinburgh University press
• 2015-  Assistant Editor, Middle East Area Submissions, Archiv Orientálni

Other academic and administrative positions

• 2023 Established the Middle East Branch of the Oriental Institute – Orient-Institut Istanbul
• 2018- Member, Advisory Council, Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences
• 2015- Research Associate, School of History, Religions and Philosophies SOAS, University of London

Membership in academic societies and bodies

• Member, Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association (OTSA)
• Member, Middle East Study Association (MESA) of North America
• Member, London Middle East Institute (LMEI) at SOAS
• Gesellschaft für Turkologie, Osmanistik und Türkeiforschung (GTOT)
• Member, Centre for Ottoman Studies (COS) at SOAS
• Member, German Middle East Study Association (DAVO)

Ongoing academic activities

• 2017- Co-organiser, Middle East Lecture Series (MELS) Oriental Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences, and the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Charles University, Prague
• 2015- Organiser, Institute Seminar Series, Oriental Institute, the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

Media appearances

• Interview (2018) “Getting High at the Gates of Felicity,” The Ottoman History Podcast

Selected papers, lectures and workshops

• Panel Organiser: “Power and Visibility in Ottoman Istanbul: the Seen, Unseen, and to Be Seen.” Turkologentag 2018 – 3rd European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies and Bamberg, 19th – 21st September, 2018. Paper: “The High Corners of Istanbul: Unseen Marginals and the Consumption of Cannabis in the Late Ottoman Empire.”
• Panel organiser: “The City in the Eye of the Beholder: Perspectives of Ottoman Istanbul.” 20th Annual Mediterranean Studies Association International Congress, Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, Valletta, 31st May – 3rd June, 2017. Paper: “Getting High in the City: The Use and Abuse of Recreational Drugs in late-Ottoman Istanbul.”
• Paper: “The Feasibility of Ottomanism according to Ottoman Albanian Ismail Kemal Bey.” CIEPO 22 Symposium, Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi, Trabzon 8th October, 2016.
• Paper: “Ottoman Cosmopolitanism.” International Conference Overcoming Global Threats, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, 13th April, 2016.
• Paper: “The Feasibility of Ottomanism according to Ottoman Albanian Ismail Kemal Bey.” DAVO/DMG Joint International Conference, Ruhr University, Bochum, 26th September, 2015.
• Paper: “Exiled Activists or Cosmopolitan Intellectuals? The Young Turk Opposition in Paris.” Modern Turkish Studies Programme, SOAS, London, 2nd March, 2012.
• Co-organiser of the 2011-12 Seminar Series held at the Yunus Emre Enstitüsü, Turkish Cultural Centre, 10 Maple Street, W1T 5HA, London.
• Co-organiser of the Middle East PhD Students International Conference, “State, Society and Economy in the Modern Middle East,” London Middle East Institute, 7th – 8th May, 2011.
• Panel co-organiser: “Neither pashas nor sultans: alternative leadership in the late Ottoman Empire and early Republican Turkey.” Discussant: Dr. Marc Aymes (CNRS – Paris) and Dr. Vangelis Kechriotis (Boğaziçi Üniversitesi). Paper: “Constructing the superiority of the Ottomans: Mehmet Sabahettin and his synthesis of Edmond Demolins.” World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) 19th – 24th July 2010, Barcelona, Spain.
• Panel co-organiser: “Political and social aspects of the press in Ottoman and post-Ottoman lands.” Chair/Discussant: Prof. Palmira Brummett. Paper: “Late 19th Century Ottoman Press in Exile as a Political Tool against Sultan Abdulhamid II, the Experience of Mechveret Supplément Français.” Middle East Study Association (MESA) 22nd – 25th November 2008, Washington DC.

Invited speaker

• Round-table: “The Kurds and Shifting Borders in the Middle East.” Anglo-American University, Prague 11th May, 2017.
• Lecture: “The Ottoman Empire in WW1.” Department of Turkology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague 4th January, 2017.
• Paper: “Religion and Ethnicity in the Late Ottoman Empire.” Seminar Series: Orient a Closer Look, Charles University, Prague 1st December, 2016.
• Panel Discussion: “The Turkish Coup Attempt and its Aftermath: Sultanic Despotism, Military Dictatorship or a Divided Society?” Anglo-American University, Prague 17th October, 2015.
• Lecture: “Religion and Ethnicity in Young Turk Thought.” Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut 2nd October, 2015.
• Lecture: “Intellectuals without Borders.” Anglo-American University, Prague 10th June, 2015.
• Lecture: “Women and Reform in the Ottoman Empire.” Metropolitan University, Prague 7th May, 2015.

Workshops

• Workshop Organiser: “Religion and State Ideology in the Middle East and Asia.” Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 11th November, 2019.
• Paper: “The Fight for the Nation: Young Turk and Hamidian Religious Discourse in theCo-chair of Workshop: “Late Ottoman Identities: the National, Transnational, and Marginal.” Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Charles University, Prague 12th – 13th October, 2018. Formulation of Ottomanism as Proto-nationalism.”
• Workshop Organiser: “Outcasts and the State in the Late Ottoman Empire.” Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague 4th December, 2017. Paper: “Getting High at the Gates of Felicity: Social Dimensions of Marijuana and Hashish Consumption in the Late Ottoman Empire.”