Fulbright Supports University of Richmond History Professor's Book Project on Gendered War Experiences of Ottoman Soldiers

Yücel Yanikdag receives Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship
October 14, 2022

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — University of Richmond Professor of History and Global Studies Yücel Yanikdag has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship for his next book project. This is his third Fulbright-Hays Fellowship.

Yanikdag’s book project is titled Making and Remaking Men in a ‘Military Nation’: Masculinity, Emotions, and Identity in the Ottoman First World War.

"This is a study of Ottoman soldiers’ experience in the First World War examined through lenses of gender, masculinities, and emotions,” Yanikdag said. “It investigates what society and the military taught young men who became soldiers about masculinity, how soldiers responded to the experience of war in the light of those expectations, and how they survived emotionally.”

“My project contextualizes the rise of hyper-militarism and nationalism of the 1930s both as a political phenomenon and a lived experience. It will reveal the deep connections between the masculine and gender anxieties created by the First World War and the subsequent rise of these two ideologies,” Yanikdag added.

This Fulbright fellowship supports Yanikdag’s travel and research in Turkey. While there during the 2023-2024 academic year, he will be affiliated with Koç University in Istanbul.  

“This award contributes to a better understanding of the ways in which masculinity is shaped and experienced during times of war,” said Jenny Cavenaugh, Dean of the School of Arts & Sciences. “Yücel’s experience will not only serve him well but also our campus community as he brings his global experiences back to the classroom.”

Yanikdag has taught at UR since 2006 and is also the author of Healing the Nation: Prisoners of War, Medicine and Nationalism in Turkey, 1914-1939 and numerous articles. Having been the George F. Kennan Member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton previously, (2013-14), he held a summer visitorship there as well in 2018. He has served as expert commentator and historical advisor for multiple international documentaries on the First World War, including “Waters of Babylon,” a winner of multiple international awards in 2022.

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