About

I am a faculty member in the Department of History (Chair of the History of the Turkish Republic) at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Bursa Uludağ University. My research focuses on how social and economic change from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic was experienced in cities and in rural life.

Agricultural history, rural transformation, urban history, migration and the population exchange are my main fields. Starting from Bursa and its region, I examine changing relations of production, population movements, foreign capital, public services and the modernisation policies of the Republic. Reading local sources against the changing conditions of Turkey and the world, I trace the links between large historical processes and the places where people lived.

My work combines archival documents, the contemporary press, trade directories and statistical data with oral history narratives. This approach makes it possible to follow the effects of institutional decisions and economic policy on everyday life through different kinds of sources.

My books include Agricultural Change in Bursa and Its Socio-economic Consequences (1945–1980), The History of Electricity in Bursa from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic (1906–1939) and Modernisation in Atatürk’s Bursa: Leader and City. My articles deal with agricultural policy, the effects of the population exchange on production, the War of Independence, prisoners of war and the social questions of the Republican period.

As principal investigator of a TÜBİTAK 1001 project, I lead an interdisciplinary team studying the social, cultural, economic and environmental consequences of agricultural change in the Bursa countryside between 1907 and 2023. I also run work on the digitisation and qualitative analysis of oral history and focus group data.

Alongside academic publishing I contribute to exhibitions, documentaries and local history work. I take part in organising international symposia and workshops and serve as academic coordinator of the Yalova Ottoman Studies Summer School. This work, where historical research meets education, cultural heritage and the public, is an important part of what I do.