Sada Payir

*Hannah Seeger Davis Postdoctoral Fellow, Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University

*DPhil (History), Pembroke College, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford
Thesis: Entertainment, Propriety, Transgression: The 'Unorthodox' Greeks of Istanbul in the Late Ottoman Empire

The course mainly funded by Suna & İnan Kıraç Foundation
Recipient of A. G. Leventis Foundation Educational Grant, A. S. Onassis Foundation Postgraduate Fellowship, Andreas Tietze Memorial Fellowship, ASMEA Postgraduate Research Grant, Constantine and George Macricostas Fellowship (Gennadius Library, American School of Classical Studies at Athens), École Française d’Athènes Doctoral Research Grant, Orient-Institut Istanbul Doctoral Fellowship, OTSA Vangelis Kechriotis Memorial Travel Grant, Oxford University Travel Abroad Bursary, Pembroke College Dean of Graduates Fund

*Honourable Mention for the 2023 Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Humanities by the Middle  East Studies Association
  Honourable Mention for the 2018 Doctoral Researcher Awards in Social Sciences by the Association of British Turkish Academics

*Educational Background:
Boğaziçi University, MA, History
École Normale Supérieure Paris, MA, Visiting Student, History
Istanbul Technical University, BS, Mining Engineering

*Research Interests:
My dissertation enquires into the transgression of legal, moral, political, and social codes via entertainment practices in late Ottoman Istanbul and aims to show the ways in which Greek Orthodox Christians committed transgressions from the perspectives of the Ottoman state, the Greek Orthodox clergy and lay, as well as the larger society including short-term residents and travellers. My chapters examine transgressions related to the business of prostitution, alcohol consumption and live music venues, the Greek Orthodox carnival (of Tatavla, i.e. Apokries, Baklahorani, Koulouma), and printed goods. While focusing on this period and city for my research, I am interested in the history of the populations in the wider region of Turkey and Greece and their literary and artistic productions from ancient to modern times.

*Conferences & Seminars:
- International Cavafy Summer School 2024: Cavafy, Theatre & Performativity, Onassis Stegi, Athens [“Cavafy in Constantinople | Constantinople in Cavafy”]
-Turkologentag 2023: The Fourth European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies (GTOT), University of Vienna [“That Time of Year You May in Tatavla Behold: Legal, Moral, Social and Political Transgressions at the Greek Orthodox Carnival in Late Ottoman Istanbul”]
-The Consortium for European Symposia on Turkey (CEST) Summer School: Cultural Exchange and Heritage, University of Vienna, 2022 [“A Moveable Feast: Transgressions at the Greek Orthodox Carnival in Late Ottoman Istanbul”]
-The Eleventh International Graduate Student Conference, Princeton University Seeger Centre for Hellenic Studies, 2019 [“Entertainment, Propriety, Transgression: The ‘Unorthodox’ Greeks of Istanbul in the Late Ottoman Empire”]
-The Twentieth Annual Postgraduate Colloquium, University of Birmingham Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, 2019 [“Privacy in Public: Transgressions at the Greek Orthodox Carnival in Late Ottoman Istanbul”]
-Hellenic College Holy Cross Asia Minor Travel Seminar: Greek Orthodox Christians of Asia Minor, Athens-Thessaloniki-Xanthi-Komotini, 2018
-The Tenth Annual ASMEA Conference, The Middle East and Africa: Assessing the Regions Ten Years On, Washington, D.C., 2017 ["The Black Sheep of the Family?: The 'Unorthodox' Greeks of Istanbul in the Late Ottoman Empire”]
-The Modern Greek Studies Graduate Colloquium, London, 2017 [“Mapping the Limits of Transgression: The ‘Unorthodox’ Greeks of Istanbul in the Late Ottoman Empire”]
-The Graduate Workshop in Ottoman Studies: Rethinking the Long Nineteenth Century in the Ottoman Empire, University of Oxford, 2013