Didem Z Havlioglu

Language

Turkish

I am a scholar of early modern Ottoman literary culture whose work centers on language, gender, and intellectual history. Trained in Ottoman Turkish and its manuscript traditions, my research explores how language both reflects and shapes social and cultural structures in the early modern period. My first book, Mihri Hatun: Performance, Gender-Bending, and Subversion in Ottoman Intellectual History, examines one of the earliest known Ottoman women poets and has helped redefine the field’s understanding of gender and authorship. My current projects continue this trajectory, investigating questions of voice, dissent, and literary performance in both Ottoman and modern Turkish texts.

At Duke, my primary responsibilities lie in teaching and program development, and I am committed to building inclusive, interdisciplinary spaces for the study of the Middle East. A central focus of my pedagogical work has been expanding access to less commonly taught languages; I developed Duke’s Turkish program into a dynamic hybrid model that integrates technology, inclusive teaching practices, and collaborative learning to support a diverse range of students.

Courses

Publications

Havlioglu, Didem, and Zeynep Uysal, eds. Routledge Handbook on Turkish Literature. Routledge, 2023.

Havlioglu, Didem. Mihrî Hatun Performance, Gender-Bending, and Subversion in Ottoman Intellectual History. Syracuse University Press, 2017.

“Border Crossing with the Black Book: Overcoming the Spatial, Cultural and Linguistic Distances.” In Approaches to Teaching the Works of Orhan Pamuk. Approaches to Teaching World L, 2017.

Havlioğlu, Didem. “The Writing Subjects.” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 12, no. 2 (July 1, 2016): 291–95. https://doi.org/10.1215/15525864-3507771.

Havlioğlu, Didem. “On the margins and between the lines: Ottoman women poets from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries.” Turkish Historical Review 1, no. 1 (May 1, 2010): 25–54. https://doi.org/10.1163/187754610x494969.

Havlioglu, D. Z. “The Writing Subjects: Halide Edip and Assia Djebar.” JMEWS 12, no. 2 (n.d.).