Organizing a panel for ASEEES 2026 (Nov. 12-15, Chicago, IL) titled “The Subliminal Porte: Sephardi Jews and the Ottoman Resonances” and looking for two (or three) co-panelists and a volunteer to serve as our chair. Here is a brief CfP:
Ever since Bayezid II had issued a ferman welcoming the expelled Sephardi Jews into the Balkan eyalets of his empire, the Balkan Peninsula became a new and vibrant Sefarad—a home to the Iberian exiles. This panel will examine the many ways in which Sephardi Jews and the Ottomans remained entangled and imbricated with one another all the way until “the last Ottoman century” (as per Julia Phillips Cohen) and in the long-cast shadow of the Sublime Porte—be it in terms of linguistic borrowings from Turkish into Judeo-Spanish, the extraterritorial citizenship (to recall Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s term), or the quotidian lived experiences of the former. Once “gone,” the Empire did not disappear entirely, but, instead, continued to enjoy a subliminal/vestigial/subterranean presence in the lives of the Sephardi communities, now integrated into the new nation-states, while still impacting their self-image and haunting their imaginary—and their dreams of affiliation. This at times barely audible, yet clearly discernible plane of resonance—across the artifacts of cultural history, socio-political musings, literary fiction, life writing, and more—will be at the focus of our panel.
If you are interested in joining as a speaker or serving as a chair, please contact Alex Pekov at ap3543@columbia.edu. Please feel free to share this CfP with anyone who might be interested but is not subscribed to the list.