Carter Findley, Humanities Distinguished Professor in the Department of History,  is one of the world’s leading scholars in both Ottoman and Turkish history, politics, and culture. His work has contributed to a generation of tremendous growth in the field, while also bringing an isolated field onto the larger landscape of world history. His expertise in world history and cultural studies is integral to the scope and quality of his research and contributes to his success as both scholar and teacher.

He is the author of four major books, including The Turks in World History, which won the 2006 Al Mubarak Book Prize awarded by the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. In 2005 he was elected an honorary member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences, only one of three foreigners to receive that distinction. He is also past president of the World History Association and the Turkish Studies Association.

Findley is the second recipient of the 2009-10 University Distinguished Lecture Award. He will present a lecture, “Turkey, Islam, Nationalism, and Modernity,”

on Tuesday, May 11 at 4 p.m. in the US Bank Conference Theater in the Ohio Union. Based on his forthcoming book from Yale University Press, the lecture will focus on the interaction between two powerful currents of change—the radical, secularizing and conservative, Islamically committed movements that clashed and converged to shape late Ottoman Empire and modern Turkish history. His work is the first to examine the interaction over time between these two currents, with the global advent of modernity defining the context of his analysis. Visual images will accompany the talk.

In demand nationally and internationally, Findley’s nominators regard him as an engaging speaker. “Audiences appreciate his devotion to the art of presenting his research in a way accessible to non-specialists, his love of vivid anecdote, and his humor,” a nominator said.

Another nominator describes Findley as having the rare ability to draw the audience into himself and the subject. “Combining erudition with clarity, and enthusiasm with precision, his presentations have always struck me as simply excellent.”

Findley looks forward to the lecture as a chance to participate in what he calls “the universality of knowledge,” that is, a chance to present findings from his field in a way that communicates to those from any discipline. One nominator notes “his ability to share not just his knowledge, but his affection for Turkish history and culture.”

Findley co-founded Ohio State’s world history program, resulting in five courses and the publication of Twentieth-Century World History, co-authored with his now emeritus colleague John Rothney. First published in 1986 and revised every four years, it is the leading world history textbook in its market. He also developed a graduate-level specialization in world history. “It helps our graduates get jobs if they have a world history background,” he said.

A recipient of the 2000 University Distinguished Research Award, Findley has a deep appreciation and commitment to explaining history and culture in a global framework. “Historians have to be empiricists,” he said, “but they don’t have to be only empiricists. If they also appreciate the macro-conceptual approaches to the organization of knowledge, then they can see much better how to evaluate their empirical findings.”

With an undergraduate history degree from Yale and a Ph.D. from Harvard in in History and Middle Eastern Studies, Findley has spent his academic career at Ohio State. Colleagues note that as a result of his and others’ collaboration, the History department now offers a broad selection of courses on Islamic history, not only in the Middle East but across the Islamic world.

Over the years, Findley played a leadership role in strengthening library holdings, diversifying the Middle Eastern Language curriculum, and adding faculty positions in supporting fields, among other initiatives—all contributing to the department’s reputation as center for the training of PhDs in the field.

While his accomplishments over 39 years at Ohio State are many, there were also struggles and frustrations. “Ohio State in the 1970s and 1980s was a very different academic environment than it is today,” he said.

He remembers early on raising money from the local Turkish-American community to purchase Turkish books for the library. Upon learning of this, the OSU library director at the time responded that he “didn’t want any Turkish books in his library.” That director is long gone, and his successors have developed a very fine Ottoman and Turkish collection to be proud of. It also took nearly 10 years of work before Turkish was taught.

“I’ve always responded to the ‘fascination of what’s difficult,’” he said, recalling a poem by W.B. Yeats. “Maybe it runs in the family: making a living by persisting in something that others tell you is impossible.”

http://www.osu.edu/lecture/