President’s Note

As I sit down to write this, it’s spring in New England, and the winter that wasn’t has given way to a season of fabulous blooming colors and shapes on a background of slowly emerging green. It’s the utter antithesis of the day-to-day reality of the COVID-19 global pandemic we are sharing, with its endless uncertainties and anxieties, gloomy pronouncements, physical distancing and isolation, and the cancellation of the next few months of academic events (and most others as well). For those who feel they would like to be reading or teaching something that connects our fields of study to the current crisis, I can recommend the work of our editor, Nükhet Varlık, Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and the podcast she recorded with Orhan Pamuk, Tunç Şen and Sam Dolbee on Ottoman writing about plague and epidemics, at http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2019/01/plague.html. A sample of other writing on disease and disaster in the Ottoman world, the intersections between natural and human causes, and the short-, medium-, and long-term impact of such events includes:

• • Ayalon, Yaron. Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

• • Bulmuş, Birsen. Plague, Quarantines and Geopolitics in the Ottoman Empire (Edinburgh University Press, 2012).

• • Gratien, Chris. “The Ottoman Quagmire: Malaria, Swamps, and Settlement in the Late Ottoman Mediterranean.” IJMES 49, no. 4 (2017): 583–604.

• • Tanielian, Melanie S. The Charity of War: Famine, Humanitarian Aid, and World War I in the Middle East (Stanford University Press, 2017).

• • White, Sam. “Rethinking Disease in Ottoman History.” IJMES 42, no. 4 (2010): 549–67.

News from OTSA

The new OTSA website is up and running! You can find it at the same URL https://www.ottomanturkishstudiesassociation.org/. Multiple options now exist for paying your dues, as well as for making contributions. Students, faculty, retirees, and interested others will find a clear link on site under “join” or “renew membership.” Recognizing that earning power varies enormously over the field, we invite you to choose the category that fits your budget. As always, a warm welcome to newly joining and rejoining members. Hoş geldiniz!

In a fit of optimism, allow me to point far ahead to the dates for OTSA’s 50th anniversary celebration, which will be held in Spring 2022 at Brandeis University. Plans are in the works, and if you would like to be involved in shaping the meeting, please contact me directly at OTSAat50@gmail.com.

As part of the OTSA@50 activities, we are mounting a fund-raising campaign, in order to stabilize our operating budget as well as allow us to consider funding new initiatives. Among the ideas that have reached my desk so far are: small research grants; travel funds to accompany our sponsorship of MESA panels; and, in the more distant future, moving JOTSA to an online publication platform similar to that of the Middle East Medievalists.

OTSA prize competitions. Because our deadlines for prize submissions fall between the intervals of JOTSA publication, the calls for submissions are only sent electronically through the OTSA membership list, on the OTSA website and posted to H-Turk. Please keep track of these time-sensitive announcements in those places. If you are not currently subscribed to H-Turk, please find further details at: https://networks.h-net.org/h-turk.

Erratum: In the previous issue, I mistakenly welcomed Will Hanley of Florida State University as a new member of the OTSA Board. The new board member is Will Smiley of the University of New Hampshire. Both Wills have noted the confusion with good humor, which I appreciate.

I wish you all and your families good health or a speedy recovery. Geçmiş olsun!

Amy Singer
OTSA President
Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor for Islamic Studies
Brandeis University

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OTSA is a membership organization. Annual dues entitle members to receive the Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association and members may stand for election to become Board members and officers and serve on OTSA committees. Annual dues and contributions fund the OTSA prizes, cover the minimal administrative...