EUME
2010/ 2011

Gülhan Balsoy

Gender and the Politics of Female Body: Midwifery, Abortion, and Pregnancy in Ottoman Society (1838–1890s)

received her PhD in history from Binghamton University in 2009 and an M.A. from Istanbul Technical University. Between 2007 and 2010 she gave courses on Ottoman and Turkish history as well as History of Science at Işık University. Her dissertation, “Gender and the Politics of Female Body: Midwifery, Abortion, and Pregnancy in Ottoman Society (1838-1890s)” examines the politicization of reproduction in the mid- to late nineteenth century Ottoman Empire. Her major publications include: “Gendering the Ottoman Labor History: The Cibali Régie Factory in the Early Twentieth Century” in “International Review of Social History”, and “Advices to Pregnant Women: Changing Conceptions of Pregnancy and Birth in the Ottoman Empire in the late Nineteenth Century” in “Medicine Within and Between the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, 18th-19th Centuries” (forthcoming). Her teaching and research interests cover the history of the late Ottoman Empire, history of women and gender, social history of medicine, history of science and technology, and labor history.
 

Gender and the Politics of Female Body: Midwifery, Abortion, and Pregnancy in Ottoman Society (1838–1890s)

During her stay in Berlin she will be working on a book based on her dissertation about the gendered aspects of the population policies and politics of female body in the late Ottoman Empire. She will also conduct her research on a new project that examines the medical institutions for women in the Ottoman society.