Darin N. Stephanov
Curriculum Vitae
Postdoctoral Researcher, Fellow
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS)
Fabianinkatu 24 (P.O. Box 4)
00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 41 754 9019
Fax +358 (0) 9 191 24509
darin.stephanov[at]helsinki.fi
EDUCATION
PhD: University of Memphis, Memphis, Tenn., History (Near East), 2012.
Dissertation: Minorities, Majorities, and the Monarch: Nationalizing Effects of
the Late Ottoman Royal Public Ceremonies, 1808 – 1908.
C. Phil.: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), History (Near East), 2004.
M.A.: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), History (Near East), 2003.
M.A.: Central Europ. University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary, Nationalism Studies, 2000.
Thesis: Patriotism in the Transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Nation.
The Thought of Butrus al-Bustani, Mehmed Said Paşa, and Ziya Gökalp.
B.A.: Harvard University, Economics, 1998.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki (Helsinki, Finland)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Fellow, 2012-14.
Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA)
2011-12 Visiting Scholar at the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies and the
Mediterranean Studies Forum
University of Memphis (Memphis, TN)
Online Course Instructor, Department of History, 2011-12.
Graduate Assistant, Department of History, 2009-10.
University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)
Teaching Fellow, Department of History, 2006-08.
Teaching Associate, Department of History, 2003-04.
Teaching Assistant, Department of History, 2002-03.
Graduate Student Researcher and Librarian at the Center for Near Eastern Studies,
2002.
Grading Assistant, Department of History, 2001-02.
PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
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“‘Bulgar Milleti Nedir? [What is Bulgarian Nationality?]’ Syncretic Forms of
Belonging in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Istanbul.” ’Istanbul – ‘Kushta’ –
‘Constantinople:’ Diversity of Identities and Personal Narratives in the Ottoman
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Capital (1830-1900) Eds. Richard Wittmann and Christoph Herzog, Leiden: Brill,
forthcoming in 2014.
“Sultan Abdülmecid’s 1846 Tour of Rumelia and the Trope of Love.” Living Empire:
Ottoman Identities in Transition, 1700-1850. Ed. Virginia Aksan. The Journal of
Ottoman Studies, Istanbul: ISAM, forthcoming in 2014.
“Ruler Visibility, Modernity and Ethnonationalism in the Late Ottoman Empire.”
Living in the Ottoman Realm: Sultans, Subjects, and Elites. Eds. Kent Schull and
Christine Isom-Verhaaren. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming in
2014.
“Solemn Songs for the Sultan. Cultural Integration through Music in the Late
Ottoman Empire, 1840s-1860s.” Ottoman Intimacies, Balkan Musical Realities. Eds.
Aspasia Theodosiou, Panagiotis Poulos and Risto Pennanen. Athens: Papers and
Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens (PMFIA), 2013.
“The Ruler and the Ruled Through the Prism of Royal Birthday Celebrations. A
Close Look at Two Documents.” Power and Influence in South-Eastern Europe, 16th19th C. Ed. Maria Baramova. Berlin: LiT Verlag, 2013.
WORK IN PROGRESS
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“Patriotism in the Transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Nation: The Thought
of Butrus al-Bustani, Mehmed Said Pasha and Ziya Gokalp” to be included in an
edited volume (Adel Beshara, University of Melbourne) tentatively entitled “Butrus
al-Bustani. Patriot, Educator, Polymath.”
“Beyond the Beautiful and the Brutal: Images of Odrin (Edirne) in Bulgarian Popular
Songs from the Balkan Wars and the Contours of an Ethnonational Mindset” for
Captivating Edirne Research Workshop in cooperation with Birgit Krawietz
(Zentrum Moderner Orient/Freie Universität zu Berlin) and Florian Riedler (ZMO).
“From ‘Long Live the Sultan!’ to ‘Long Live Bulgaria!’ – A Long Ignored Path to the
Nation-State and Its Implications” to be included in an international journal volume
(Andreas Lyberatos, Anna Vakali, Eds.), entitled “Through Nation and State.
Nationalism “from below” in the Late Ottoman Empire (19th-early 20th c.). (under
preparation).
ANNOTATED TRANSLATIONS
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“A Paean to the Sultan by the Jews of the Danube Province (1876).” Sephardi
Lives: A Documentary History of the Ottoman Judeo-Spanish World & Its
Diaspora, 1700-1950. Julia P. Cohen and Sarah A. Stein, Eds. (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2013).
“A Bulgarian Woman Stands Trial for Communist Activities (1943).” Sephardi
Lives: A Documentary History of the Ottoman Judeo-Spanish World & Its
Diaspora, 1700-1950. Julia P. Cohen and Sarah A. Stein, Eds. (Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 2013).
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
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“Novus Ordo Seclorum ["New Order of the Ages”] Vision: Harvard Students Look
Ahead. Eds. Peter Tse, Jeremy Gray and Frank Pasquale. Cambridge, MA: Dipylon
Press, 1996. The text was published after winning 1st prize in the Economics section
of the Vision Essay Contest, 1996.
AWARDS AND PRIZES
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Co-winner of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)’s 2010
Graduate Student Paper Prize with the paper – “The First Shift in (Modern) Ruler
Visibility: The Reign of Mahmud II,” at MESA’s annual convention in San Diego,
CA, Nov. 19, 2010.
Winner of the Turkish Studies Association of North America (TSA)’s 2010 Sydney
N. Fisher Graduate Student Paper Prize with the paper – “The First Shift in (Modern)
Ruler Visibility: The Reign of Mahmud II,” at TSA’s convention in San Diego, CA,
Nov. 18, 2010.
UCLA Laura Kinsey Memorial Prize for Distinguished Teaching, April 2008.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
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The University of Memphis History Department Endowment Committee Grant for
Conference Presentations in Athens (Greece), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Istanbul (Turkey),
September 30 – October 15, 2010.
The University of Memphis History Department Dissertation Completion Grant,
2010-2011.
The University of Memphis History Department Best Dissertation Prospectus Award,
Spring 2010.
The University of Memphis History Department Endowment Committee Grant for
Summer Research at the Turkish Prime Minister’s Ottoman Archives in Istanbul,
May 2010.
UCLA Department of History Dissertation Writing Grant, 2008.
UCLA History Department Research Travel Grant for a trip to the Library of
Congress, November, 2008.
UCLA Center for European and Eurasian Studies (CEES) Summer Pre-Dissertation
Fellowship for Research in Russia, 2005.
UCLA Hans Rogger Fellowship for Research on Central and Eastern Europe, 2004.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
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“Ruler Visibility, Modernity, and Ethnonationalism in the Late Ottoman and Russian
Empires (1825-1908). Beginnings of a Bulgarian-Finnish Comparison.” presented at
the International Seminar Finland in Comparison II, organized by the Finnish Centre
of Excellence in Historical Research in Tampere, Finland (Oct.7-8, 2013).
“Bulgarian ‘Folk’ Songs from the Balkan Wars and the Traits of the Ethnonational
Mindset” presented at “Balkan Worlds: Ottoman Past and Balkan Nationalism”
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International Conference held at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
(October 4-7, 2012).
“Sultan Abdülmecid’s 1846 Tour of Rumelia and the Trope of Love” presented at
“Living Empire: Ottoman Identities in Transition, 1700-1850” International
Conference held at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada (April 20-22, 2012).
“God Save the Tsar! – The Ottoman Transformations of a British Anthem in the MidNineteenth Century” at the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM)’s “Sound Ecologies”
Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA (November 11-14, 2010).
“‘Bulgar Milleti Nedir?[What is Bulgarian Nationality?]’ Syncretic and Fluctuating
Forms of Belonging in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Istanbul” at The Orient Institute and
University of Bamberg (Germany)’s “’Istanbul – ‘Kushta’ – ‘Constantinople:’
Diversity of Identities and Personal Narratives in the Ottoman Capital (1830-1900)”
international conference held at the German Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey (October
13-15, 2010).
“The Origins of Modern Public Celebration of the Monarch in Southeastern Europe:
Sultan Mahmud II, Alexander Ghika, Wallachia and Beyond” at University of Sofia’s
“Power and Influence in Southeastern Europe, 16th-19th C.” international conference
held in Sofia, Bulgaria (October 8-10, 2010).
“Solemn Songs for the Sultan. Cultural Integration through Music in the Late
Ottoman Empire, 1840s-1860s” at University of Athens/Finnish Institute’s “The
Ottoman Past in the Balkan Present: Music and Mediation” international conference
held in Athens, Greece (Sept. 30-October 2, 2010).
“The Autocrat’s Sacred Aura. Religious Aspects of the Shaping of a Monarchic
Persona in the Late Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1876-1908” at the 2008 MESA
annual conference in Washington, DC.
“(In)visibility and the Shaping of a Monarchic Persona in the late Ottoman and
Russian Empires” at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute Graduate Workshop
“Russia and the Ottoman Empire: Transregional and Comparative Approaches” in
New York, NY (April, 2008).
Panel Organizer: “Conquest of the City – Patterns of Monarchic Ceremonial
Employment of Urban Space (Chair: Prof. Richard Wortman, Columbia University)
and Presentation: “Spectacle for the Masses. Parading Autocracy in the Late Ottoman
and Russian Empires” at the 2008 AHA annual conference in Washington, DC.
“Crowns, Swords and Thrones – Symbolic Deployment of Regalia in the Defense of
Autocracy in the Late Ottoman and Russian Empires” at the 2007 MESA annual
conference in Montreal, Canada.
“Cannon Salvos for the Monarch. Notes on the Ceremonial Usage of Artillery at
Nineteenth-Century Ottoman and Russian Accession, Coronation and Other Public
Dynastic Festivities” at Bosphorus University’s Ottoman Material Culture Workshop
(organized by Prof. Suraiya Faroqhi), Istanbul, Turkey (September, 2006).
“Notes on Some Continuities and Discontinuities between Machiavelli’s Prince and
its Last Chapter (supervised by Prof. Carlo Ginzburg), at UCLA’s European History
Colloquium, Los Angeles, CA (June, 2004).
PUBLIC LECTURES AND ACADEMIC DISCUSSIONS
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Presentation (“Construction in the Field of Nationalism Studies: Process, Product and
Problems”) at the HCAS Academic Advisory Board’s seminar “Interventions in
Construction: Methods and Problems” (Jan. 12, 2013).
Presentation (“Ruler Visibility, Modernity and Ethnonationalism in the Late Ottoman
Empire and Beyond”) at the Nationalism Workshop of the University of Helsinki’s
Department of Political History (Dec. 11, 2012).
Panelist at the workshop “Challenges in Multidisciplinary Area Studies at the B.A.,
M.A. and PhD levels” at the Aleksanteri Institute’s Finnish Centre for Russian and
Eastern European Studies in Helsinki (Nov. 29, 2012).
Initiator and Discussant at the HCAS workshop “Remembering Communism” (Nov.
29, 2012).
Organizer and presenter at the HCAS Roundtable on Identity and Nationalism (Sept.
18, 2012).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Undergraduate Survey Courses
• History of the Middle East (various formats), most recently: History of the Modern
Middle East, 1700-Present
• History of Western Civilization (part I-III)
• History of Southeast Asia
• History of the United States until 1877
Upper Division Undergraduate Seminars
• Spectacle for the Masses. Microhistorical Approaches to the Analysis of Dynastic
Processions in the Nineteenth Century
• Theories and Histories of Nationalism
LANGUAGES
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Bulgarian (native)
English (fluent)
Russian (advanced)
Ottoman Turkish (advanced)
German (intermediate)
Modern Turkish (reading knowledge)
Italian (reading knowledge)
Spanish (basic)