ABSTRACT: This essay reflects on the author’s circuitous path into Ottoman history and how that trajectory shaped both her pedagogy and the writing of an undergraduate textbook. Drawing on decades of teaching across three continents, it examines the challenges students face in approaching Ottoman history—Eurocentrism, unfamiliar geography, and top-down narratives—and explains how recent historiographical shifts, thematic framing, and pedagogical experimentation informed the creation of a more accessible, critical, and globally situated Ottoman history text.
Renée Worringer (Sat,) studied this question.