Ayşegül Koca, M.A.

Forschungsschwerpunkte

• Military history
• osmanischen Reich

Promotionsprojekt

Guardians of an Empire, Founders of a Republic: The Lives of the 1902 Graduates of the Ottoman Imperial Military Staff College

Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Christoph K. Neumann

The project focuses on the life stories of a class of 12 elite graduates of the Ottoman military academy who as military officers. The class of 1902 is of special interest, as its members pursued very different career paths – and many survived the wars to continue being active in later times. In Turkish studies, prosopographic research has so far concentrated on civilian elites; no thorough collective biography on military men exists. Moreover, while the military elite played a key role in modern Ottoman and Turkish history throughout, the time between 1924 to 1960 has rarely been examined as direct military interventions in politics did not occur in this period. Therefore, the role of the ex- officers, who had been fighting between 1911 and 1922, in early republican history remains unknown. The project steers a middle route between formal prosopography and deeper analysis typical for single biographies. In doing so, it embraces concepts of ‘post-new’ military history and focuses on neglected aspects of military culture in different times and regions. It is based on rich source material including archival material, memoirs, diaries, newspaper articles, and biographies.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• January 2022–Present, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Studies/Munich Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, Doctoral Student,

Doctoral Fellowships

• March–September 2026, Leibniz Institute of European History,

• January–July 2022, Munich Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, Ph.D.,

Professional Experience

• November 2024–March 2026, DFG: SFB 1369, Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations – Spaces – Practices, Project B05: The Double Bond of Lovers: Social and Spiritual Regimes of Dervishes in Istanbul during the Long Nineteenth Century,

• December 2021–March 2022, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Engendering Wildlife and Whiteness: Elephants, Ivory and Zoos (1870s–1940s),

Summer Schools

• September 2026, The Politics of Archives in Turkey and Related Geographies, organized by L'Università di Napoli L'Orientale, Mercator Foundation and the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program at Northwestern University; Fully funded,

• September 2023, A Liminal Identity? Border Narratives in Trieste, Past and Present, organized by the University of Trieste and the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies at the University of Regensburg and LMU Munich; Fully funded,

• June 2022, Moving Biography Summer School, organized by the LAWHA Project of the Orient–Institut Beirut, Max Weber Stiftung, the American University of Beirut, the Global (De)Centre and the Volkswagen Stiftung; Fully funded,

Conferences

• October 2026, Presentation: Ottoman Military Officers from Empire to Republic (1880–1950) in Forschungsprobleme der türkischen und iranischen Studien, organized by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies,

• March 2025, Presentation: The Ottoman–German Military Alliance: Strategic Interests and Modernization (1880–1918), for the Digital Guide: Colonialism & Resistance organized by the Museum Five Continents; Fully funded,

• December 2025, Presentation: Yūsuf al–Azma (1884–1920): A Biographical Reinterpretation Through the Lens of his Military Peers, in A Century of Revolutions: Centennial of the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–2025), organized by The Institute of Research and Study on the Arab and Islamic Worlds (IREMAM) and Aix–Marseille University; Fully funded,

• June 2022, Presentation: The Lives of the 1902 Graduates of the Ottoman Imperial Military Staff College: Prosopographical Networks, in Forms of Cultural, Intellectual, Spatial Mobilities in the Middle East – Interconnected with Digital Humanities, organized by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Institute of Near and Middle Eastern Studies,

Organizational Activities

• July 2025, Changing Conditions, Changing Discourse: Sufis in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey, 1826 to 1950, funded by DFG: SFB 1369, Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations – Spaces – Practices; Conference Assistant,

• July 2025, Once We Were Here: Traces of Mobility across the Ottoman Empire, funded by Marie Skłodowska–Curie Actions and the European Union; Conference Assistant,