In the last decades, historians proved in multiple ways the fluidity and fragility of borders and frontier areas (Sahlins 1989; Baramova-Boykov-Parvev 2015; Blumi 2017). In particular, the studies on the border regions of the (post-)Ottoman world became highly productive fields of research (Pedani 2002; Ateş 2013; Tejel 2023). Moving on from the previous scholarship’s concerns limited to the shaping of borders in the nation- building period, a new understanding of imperial borderlands and their societies emerged (Blumi 2011; Pešalj 2015; Pešalj-Steidl-Lucassen-Ehmer 2022). This understanding does not focus only on the shaping, re-shaping, and formation of borders within the empire/nation-building process, but also on the various aspects of life in the borderlands of an empire or of a newly emerged nation-state. Together with the increasing number of works conducted on the borderlands and their societies in the (post-)Ottoman period, there is still significant room to address and analyze the processes of shaping borders and the transformation that borderland societies underwent between the 18th and 20th centuries.

Therefore, with a special emphasis on the very promising South-Eastern European area, but also including the other frontiers of the Empire, such as the Northern Black Sea and the Middle East, the present workshop aims to gather early-career and advanced researchers in order to highlight different aspects of the border-building processes and the transformation of border societies, such as practices in the newly emerged borderlands and the creation of institutions for the administration of migratory waves; health, with the foundation of structures aimed at ensuring the control of pandemics; and, finally, the transformations within human border societies that occurred from the 18th century until the beginning of WWII.

"The Ottoman Europe" working group will hold a two-day international workshop at the University of Leipzig on 19-20 September 2024. The workshop will consist of three main sessions:

[1] Securitization of borderlands: This session analyses the gradual end of the modern ancient régime states and the transition to the new model of nation states between the 18th and 20th centuries in the Ottoman frontier regions, including but not limited to Southeast Europe and the Northern Black Sea region. This “securitization” process led to the formation and implementation of new security regimes. New security institutions were created and developed, such as customary services and police forces in charge of controlling migration policies in border areas by the new states, which increased individual states’ control over their borders and surrounding areas. This phenomenon, which originated in Europe, is particularly evident in the nation states that emerged after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
[2] Maintaining health in border areas: It takes into consideration case studies of new border and sanitary structures’ development in the frontier regions, like quarantines, sanitary offices, and hospitals, aimed at systematic health controls in border areas, modifying their “natural porosity”. In this way, new centralized states aimed at limiting the spread of pandemics from the Asian continent by monitoring and controlling migratory flows and pilgrimages between the 18th and 20th centuries.
[3] Borderlands’ societies: This last session investigates the transformation of the Ottoman border societies, the migratory waves, and the cross-border mobility between borders in old and newly established countries between the 18th and 20th centuries. Case studies like the transformation of Austrian and Bosnian borderland societies in this period, are symptomatic of the complex changing process that gradually led from the ancien régime state to the building of 20th century nation-states. Within this context contributions concerning state-formation, border-making processes, securitization of the borderlands, cross-border hygiene, and health practices as well as studies on cross-border mobilities and societies are specifically encouraged.

Organizing Committee:
Arda Akıncı (University of Salamanca)
Giorgio Ennas (Franklin University
Switzerland)
Fatma Aladağ (University of Leipzig)
Stefan Rohdewald (University of Leipzig)

Scientific Committee:
Ozan Ozavci (University of Utrecht)
Alexander Balistreri (University of Basel)
Alp Yenen (University of Leiden)
Laura Di Fiore (University of Naples Federico II)
Elife Biçer-Deveci (University of Bern)
Jordi Tejel (University of Neuchâtel)
Florian Riedler (University of Leipzig)