Ines Aščerić-Todd
Head of Department, Lecturer in Arabic and Middle Eastern Cultures
- Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
- School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures
Contact details
Address
- Street
-
Room 1.4
19 George Square - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9LD
Availability
Office Hours, S2, 2023-24 (Term-time): Mondays 1-3 pm.
Background
Dr Ines Aščerić-Todd joined IMES as Lecturer in Arabic and Middle Eastern Cultures in September 2018. She started her university education with a degree in Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from Durham, after which she focussed her academic interests on Islam and Islamic history in the Ottoman context, which led her to obtain an MPhil in Ottoman Turkish Studies and a DPhil in Oriental Studies, both from the University of Oxford. Before starting her current post in Edinburgh, Dr Aščerić-Todd has worked as an Arabic and Ottoman specialist at Durham University Library, an Islamic and Ottoman manuscripts specialist at Princeton University, and has taught Arab-Islamic history, culture and literature at the American University of Sharjah.
Qualifications
- DPhil in Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
- MPhil in Ottoman Turkish Studies, University of Oxford
- BA (Hons) in Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Durham University
Undergraduate teaching
- Islamic and Middle Eastern Cultures (course organiser)
- Modern Arabic Literature (course organiser)
-
The Ottoman World: the Society, Culture and Legacy of Islam's Last Empire (course organiser)
-
Islamic History B: From the Crusades to the 'Gunpowder Empires' (team taught)
-
Introduction to Islam (team taught)
-
From Athena to Edina: Antiquity in Revolution between Greece and Scotland (guest lecturer at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology)
Postgraduate teaching
- The Ottoman World: the Society, Culture and Legacy of Islam's Last Empire (PG version, course organiser)
- Research Methods and Problems in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (team taught)
- Critical Readings in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (team taught)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
I am open to queries for PhD supervision in the following subject areas: any aspect of Ottoman society and history, especially cultural and religious; Sufism and dervish orders; interfaith relations and conversions to Islam in the Ottoman Empire; topics related to Ottoman, Turkish, and post-classical and modern Arabic literature.
Current PhD students supervised
Haya Alwehaib, The Arabian Nights in Late Romantic Literature (English Literature PhD)
Neelofer Korotana, The influence of Islamic thought upon the Romantic poets: Coleridge, Southey, Shelley and Byron (English Literature PhD)
Madiha Shwkaien, Social Marginalization of Women in Arabian Gulf Fiction (2010-2020) (IMES PhD)
Moh Zaimil Alivin, Muslims in the Periphery: Intersectionality of Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Middle Eastern Diaspora Novels (IMES PhD)
Erin Robbins, Revolution and religion in the works of Adonis (IMES PhD)
Fidan Cheikosman, The Significance of the Insignificance of the Everyday in Elif Shafak’s and Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul: A Study of Turkishness from an Aesthetic, Geo-Political, and Historical Perspective (Comparative Literature PhD)
Past PhD students supervised
Farah Taleb, Reshaping Narratives: Women Artists from West Asia and North Africa in Western Museums (IMES PhD)
Research summary
Dr Aščerić-Todd's research interests are in cultural and religious history of the Middle East and the Ottoman Empire.
She is particularly interested in Sufism and dervish orders, interfaith relations in the Ottoman Empire and wider Middle East during the Ottoman period, Islamic and Ottoman urban institutions, crafts and trade-guilds, and all aspects of Islamic chivalry/futuwwa. She also teaches and has interests in the field of modern Arabic literature.
Subject areas
- History of the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman Europe
- Islamic history, particularly the themes of Islamisation and urbanisation
- Interfaith relations and conversions to Islam in the Ottoman Empire
- Ottoman urban institutions and architecture
- Sufism and dervish orders
- Islamic chivalry and chivalric associations
- Islamic and Middle Eastern masculinities
- Post-classical and modern Arabic literature
- Islamic codicology
Research activities
- 'Ottoman futuwwa manuscripts and their transmission from Anatolia to the Balkans and beyond: texts and contexts' to
- ‘Setting the boundaries of orthodoxy during the Ottoman ‘Sunnitisation’ period: the case of the Kızılbaş and the Melami-Bayrami Sufis in the late 16th century’
- ‘Production and Transmission of Sufi Futuwwa Manuscripts from Anatolia to the Balkans and Beyond’
- IMES research seminar series
- ‘The myth of Bogomil Bosnia: decolonising the Bosnian Muslims’ view of their origin and identity’
- ‘Literature of travels through Ottoman lands: from historical sources to the birth of Orientalism’, lecture for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
- 'From colonialism to romanticism, revolution and exile: a brief introduction to Middle Eastern literatures', lecture for the Workers’ Educational Association Scotland (WEA Scotland)
- Travellers in Ottoman Lands: the Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond to
- Travellers in Ottoman Lands: the Balkans, Anatolia and Beyond
- Die Welt des Islams (Journal)
- Member of the Press Committee, Edinburgh University Press
- Exhibition 'Under the sky of cheerful faith – Islam and Europe in the Bosnian experience'
- Journal of Arabian Studies (Journal)
- Die Welt des Islams (Journal)
- Sufi Manuscript Cultures, c. 1200-1800: 1st workshop
- Brill (Publisher)
- Journal of Islamic Studies (Journal)
- ERC Advanced Grant 2020
- Edina/Athena — 1821–2021: The Greek Revolution and Edinburgh as the ‘Modern Athens’ to
- Demystifying Sufism: Rethinking Origins, Institutions and Politics
-
[Review of] Making a Living in Ottoman Anatolia Edited by Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet
(5 pages)
In:
Journal of Islamic Studies, pp. 1-5
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etad011
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (E-pub ahead of print) -
Bosnian pluralism in the urban setting: interfaith relations and religious tolerance through the lens of the Ottoman trade-guilds: Part of Exhibition 'Under the sky of cheerful faith – Islam and Europe in the Bosnian experience'
Web article › Other contribution (Published) -
Bosanski pluralizam u urbanom okruženju: međureligijski odnosi i vjerska tolerancija kroz leće osmanlijskih esnafa: Dio Izložbe 'Pod nebom vedre vjere – Islam i Evropa u iskustvu Bosne'
Web article › Other contribution (Published) -
A subaltern hero: The 1573 execution of Sheikh Hamza Bali as part of the ‘Sunnitisation’ of the Ottoman Empire
Research output: Contribution to Workshop › Conference contribution (Published) -
Islamic Mysticism – Sufism: The Establishment of Dervish Orders and Sufi Traditions in Bosnia: Part of Exhibition 'Under the sky of cheerful faith – Islam and Europe in the Bosnian experience'
Web article › Other contribution (Published) -
Islamski misticizam – sufizam: osnivanje derviških redova i nastanak sufijske tradicije u Bosni: Dio Izložbe 'Pod nebom vedre vjere – Islam i Evropa u iskustvu Bosne'
Web article › Other contribution (Published) -
Patarenes, Protestants and Islam in Bosnia: Deconstructing the Bogomil theory
In:
Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, vol. 33, pp. 213-234
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2022.2121494
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
[Review of] Dejan Aždajić, The Shaping Shaikh: The Role of the Shaikh in Lived Islam among Sufis in Bosnia and Herzegovina
In:
Die Welt des Islams, vol. 61
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700607-61020017
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Craftsmen, Sufi-Guild networks and mobility in the Ottoman Empire
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Conference contribution (Published) -
[Review of] The Ottoman 'Wild West': The Balkan Frontier in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, by Nikolay Antov
Book review › Other contribution (Published) -
Sufizam i urbani razvoj Osmanske Bosne
Research output: Contribution to Conference › Conference contribution (Published) -
Bosna Perennis: Razgovor sa Ines Aščerić-Todd
In:
Behar: časopis za književnost i društvena pitanja, vol. XXVII, pp. 30-31
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Comment/debate (Published) -
Religious diversity and tolerance in Ottoman guilds
(13 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004384163
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Bosna’da Dervişler ve İslam: Müslüman Bosna Toplumunun Oluşumunda Tasavvufi Boyutlar
(264 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Fotovvat in Bosnia
(19 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv75d0fs.9
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy
(358 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
The Ottoman Empire: An introduction to its history and heritage
Research output: Contribution to Seminar › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Sufism and the urban development of Ottoman Bosnia
In:
Revista Âyiné, vol. 3
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
A note on the Aḫī-Qādiriyya Order
In:
Arabica, vol. 64, pp. 249 – 252
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15700585-12341445
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Dervishes and Islam in Bosnia: Sufi Dimensions to the Formation of Bosnian Muslim Society
(198 pages)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004288447
Research output: › Book (Published)