Faculty Profiles

Mark L Stein

Professor, History
Director of Center for Ethics
History
484-664-3789

[email protected]

Education

  • Ph.D., M.A., University of Chicago
  • B.A., Northwestern University

Teaching Interests

I teach history for the same reasons that I was drawn to study history in the first place: I want to understand the societies and civilizations of the past in order to better understand our present. In my courses I not only focus on the events and peoples of the past, but also on the methods that historians use to uncover those details. I emphasize using primary sources of all kinds: government records, literature, personal journals, treaties, art and architecture.

My focus is the history of the Middle East. This is a widely misunderstood region yet one that is vital to our highly interconnected, globalized world. I try to help students recognize the preconceptions that they bring to the class and how other people view their own history and that of the world.

Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests

My research focus is the social and economic history of the Ottoman Empire. This is a broad area, as the Ottomans ruled the Middle East and Southeastern Europe for more than 600 years. Specifically, I have investigated the military frontier between the Ottomans and the Habsburg Empire in Hungary in the 17th century. I am currently working on three projects:

  1. First, I am using Ottoman documents and geographic information system (commonly referred to as “GIS”) technologies to develop a map of Ottoman fortifications and transport routes along their Habsburg frontier.
  2. The second is a review of the state of the field of Ottoman military history.
  3. Finally, I am beginning a project on Ottoman immigrants to the Allentown area in the early 20th century.

  • FYS: Captives
  • Modern Middle Eastern History
  • Read Sem: Expanding World of the Early Modern
  • Sultans, Harems, & Slaves: The Ottoman Empire

“Inalcik and Ottoman Military History,” in Archivum Ottomanicum Vol. 38 (2021).

“Integrative Learning and Simulating Revolution and Protest in the Middle East,” with Brian Mello, Review of Middle East Studies, Vol. 55, no. 1 (Winter 2021).

“Ottoman Observers of Ottoman War in the Seventeenth Century,” in Ottoman War and Peace: Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, edited by Frank Castiglione, Ethan L. Menchinger, and Veysel Şimşek (Leiden:  Brill, 2019).

“Ottoman Observers of Ottoman War,” in A Scholar of Ottoman War, Peace, and Empire: A Festschrift in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan, edited by Frank Castiglione, Ethan L. Menchinger, and Veysel Şimşek (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).

“Military Service and Material Gain on the Ottoman-Habsburg Frontier,” in The Frontiers of the Ottoman World: Proceedings of the British Academy, edited by A.C.S. Peacock, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Osmanlı Kaleleri Avrupa'da Hudut Boyları (Istanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2007). [Turkish edition of Guarding the Frontier]

Guarding the Frontier: Ottoman Border Forts and Garrisons in Europe (London: I. B. Tauris, 2007).

“The Ottoman Empire, France, and Austria-Hungary,” in Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2006).

“A Provincial Treasurer Reports, c. 1674,” The Modern Middle East Sourcebook, edited by Cameron Amin, Benjamin Fortna, and Elizabeth Frierson, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).


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