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Moving Stories

Belief and Belonging across the Generations in the Global Middle East

Moving Stories brings out the power of narratives of migration and rediscovery, highlighting the very moving storytelling of individuals as they variously described, explained and justified themselves, their communities and their environments.

People

The project, based at the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford, is led by Professor John-Paul Ghobrial and runs until 30th September 2026. Five Research Associates have been recruited to work on various aspects of the migration of Ottoman subjects and their experiences in a range of local, imperial and international contexts.

Sourcebook

Using primary sources for the early immigrant experience in a wide variety of languages, we will compile a new Sourcebook in Belief and Belonging in the Global Middle East, spanning four continents and an unprecedented range of records, documents and literary sources during this period of acute generational change.

22 Oct

Race-making, Religion, and the Gendered “Business” of Slavery in the Late Ottoman Empire

Old Common Room, Balliol College, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BJ. Coffee will be served from 11am.

5 Nov

The House Always Wins: Arms Trafficking, Settler Capitalism, and the Making of Ottoman Jolan, 1878-1918

Old Common Room, Balliol College, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BJ. Coffee will be served from 11am.

10 Nov

Call for Papers: Constitutionalism and Religious Identity in the Middle East: Historical and Transnational Perspectives, 1850-1950

19 Nov

“My Copyist Pretends to Have Misunderstood Me”: Writing émigré Arabic journals in 1880s Paris

Old Common Room, Balliol College, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BJ. Coffee will be served from 11am.

2 Dec

Was 1921-1941 the first Cold War? Testing a Hypothesis

Old Common Room, Balliol College, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BJ. Coffee will be served from 4pm.

3 Dec

Modern Transimperial History: An Introduction

Old Common Room, Balliol College, Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BJ. Coffee will be served from 11am.

If you have information or a story related to this theme, you are invited to get in touch. See the Contact page for details.