Utku Can Akın

Before coming to U of T, Utku Can Akın earned an MA in History from Boğaziçi University and a BA from Bilkent University, where he studied economics, international relations, and history. His master’s thesis examined the role of scientific and technological input as a transformative and driving force in late Ottoman cotton cultivation between 1840 and 1876. He discussed the cycles of success and failure in the cultivation and production of cotton as ‘non-radical chaotic processes’ and demonstrated how these processes shaped material conditions.

Akın’s research interests lie at the intersection of the economic, social, and intellectual history of the (late) Ottoman Empire and the history and philosophy of science and technology. He explores the scientific and literary societies established in Istanbul, especially after the Crimean War, which came together, dispersed, and regrouped. How the diffractions they created affected science publishing is one of the questions his research seeks to answer. This research considers scientific activity and the material conditions that drove this activity as a process of reunification of previously scattered forces. Akın’s work also aims to present a revised portrait of the Ottoman Empire’s nineteenth-century elite network formation by bringing science producers, transmitters, and negotiators from different ethnic and religious backgrounds to the forefront, a topic that remains neglected in historical scholarship.

Education

• MA, Boğaziçi University
• BA, Bilkent University

Current Supervisor(s)

Adrien Zakar