Basic FactsTeaching Position:
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Princeton University, Near Eastern Studies Department (2007-2008);
Assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina-Charlotte (August 2004-Present).
Area of Research:
Modern Middle Eastern History; Modern Japanese History; Alternative
Visions of World Order in International History; Literature of World History
Education:
Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, November 2002.
Major Publications:
Aydin is the author of Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and
Pan-Asian Thought (New York: Columbia University Press, Global and International History Series; 2007).
Aydin is also the author of numerous scholarly journal articles, book chapters and reviews including:"A Global anti-Western Moment? The Russo-Japanese War, Decolonization and Asian Modernity" in Sebastian Conrad/
Dominic Sachsenmaier, eds., Conceptions of World Order, ca. 1880-1935. Global Moments and Movements
(New York City: Palgrave Transnational History Series, 2007): 213-236;"The 'Question of the West' and Alternative Visions of World Order in Interwar Era Japan and Turkey: What
Does a Comparison Teach Us?" in Toshihiro Minohara and Kimura Masato, eds, Turbulent Decade: Japan's Challenge
to the International System of the 1930s (University of Toronto Press, Forthcoming in 2007);
(co-authored with Juliane Hammer)"Introduction to the Special Issue on the Critiques of the 'West'
in Iran, Turkey and Japan", Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,
Vol. 26:3 (Fall 2006): 347-352;"Between Reverse Orientalism and the Global Left: Islamic Critiques
of the West in Modern Turkey," Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,
Vol. 26: 3 (Fall 2006): 446-461;"Beyond Civilization: Pan-Islamism, Pan-Asianism and the Revolt against the West,"
Journal of Modern European History, Vol. 4:2 (Fall, 2006): 204-223;"Overcoming Eurocentrism? Japanese
Orientalism on the Muslim World (1913-1945)," Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle Eastern Studies,
(Fall, 2006): 139-164;"The Politics of Conceptualizing Islam and the West," Ethics and International Affairs,
Vol. 19:1 (Winter 2005): 93-100.
Aydin's works in progress include a book project on"From Arnold Toynbee to Ali Shariati: Islam and the West under
the Shadow of the Cold War," -Sponsored by a Fellowship from Princeton University Near Eastern Studies Department, and the"Selected Works of Ismail Kara" (Translation of eight selected articles by a leading historian of
late Ottoman-Turkish intellectual history).
Awards:
Aydin is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including among others:
Princeton University, NES, Post-Doctoral Fellowship;
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Faculty Summer Research Grant, Summer 2006;
Symposium Grant, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, April 2005;
Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, October 2002-December 2003;
Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Supplementary Dissertation Grant, September 2001-May 2002;
Graduate Student Associate at Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, September 2000-June 2002;
Harvard University GSAS Dissertation Grant, September 2000-May 2001;
Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Summer Research Grant, Summer 2000;
Toyota Foundation, Dissertation Research Grant, Fall 1999;
Japanese Education Ministry Fellow, September 1997-April 1999;
Middlebury College, Japanese Summer School, Language Study Grant, Summer 2006;
Mellon Foundation Grant for the Study of Arabic, Summer 1995;
Graduate Study Fellowship from Center for Islamic Studies, Istanbul, 1992-1996;
Fellow of International Institute of Islamic Thought & Civilization, Kuala Lumpur, 1991-1992;
NATO Student Workshop Fellow, Brussels, June 1991.
Additional Info:
Formerly Academy Scholar, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (Oct.-2002-Dec-2004), and
Assistant Professor of History, Department of History, Ohio State University (January 2004-July 2004).
Collaborative Research Projects include German Research Foundation (DFG),"Conceptions of World Orders in
Global History," June 2004-June 2007, and Shibusawa Foundation,"Turbulent Decade: Japan's Challenge to the
International System of the 1930s," September 2003-June 2006.
Personal AnecdoteGrowing up in Istanbul, I always found it awkward to read the"Welcome to Asia" and"Welcome to Europe"
signs at the two ends of the less-than-a mile long suspension bridge over the Bosporus waters. These innocent
looking continental demarcation signs meant very little to the millions of commuters, supposedly moving between
continents every day. In high school, we were taught that Turkey is an important bridge between East and West,
as well as Asia and Europe. I remember one time joking with friends that we needed to tidy up our ties and jackets
while crossing the bridge from the Asian to the European side of the city, sarcastically reflecting predominant
judgments associated with the two continents. I would have never predicted that I would later spend years during
my graduate study examining the history and politics of the historical construct of Asia and Europe (or East and
West) and its impact. And ironically, but not unsurprisingly, while I was trying to historicize these
civilizational and continental categories, stereotyped civilizational identities (think clash of
civilization thesis...) embellished with new political and cultural inflections gained popularity in public
discourse.
My undergraduate years coincided with exciting debates on Eurocentrism and post-modernism in Istanbul college
classrooms and coffeehouses. It was in a senior seminar paper on Jürgen Habermas' critique of anti-modern thinking
that I first remember arguing for a more global history of modernity and world order. My plan was to go either
to China or Japan to have a non-Eurocentric comparative look at the question of the West and how Asian
intellectuals have debated the universality of modernity in the last two centuries. But, to my frustration,
the visiting Japanese professor whose guide to Istanbul I had become and who I hoped to study with in Japan
told me not to come to the Far East, Tokyo, but to go to the Far West, to a university in America, if I was
that interested in non-Eurocentric perspectives on global history.
Only after my first semester at Harvard did I realize the wisdom of his advice. History departments at many
American research universities have experts covering all the regions of the world, with ideally half of the
faculty teaching non-Western fields. This intellectual presence not only provides perspectives into the different
regional histories, it also allows for important insights into world and global history. Of course, I also made it
to Japan where I spent two years learning Japanese and searching archives and bookstores. Looking back, I had a
wonderful time during the eight years of my graduate school education, having a chance not only to immerse
myself in East Asian and Middle Eastern histories, but to learn a lot about the modern histories of Africa,
the Americas and Europe. I became addicted to the 4 pm seminars, accompanied by coffee or tea and cookies,
though I had to limit my attendance to 2 seminars a week to be able to finish my dissertation and keep my weight.
By the end of my graduate school years, I had become optimistic about the scholarly integrity and public
mission of the historical profession. The events of and developments after September 11, 2001 did not change
my confidence in my discipline. Yet, many of the achievements of my colleagues in dispelling historically rooted
prejudices and misunderstandings among different societies were swept away by a flood of reasserted popular
stereotypes about anti-Western Muslims and imperialist crusading Westerners. The 'us vs. them' dichotomy as
well as the 'what went wrong?' and 'why do they hate us?' questions forced many in the academic community to
take a stand. The increased public interest in answers, explanations and lessons from the past in order to
understand the current situation better has affected my research as well as my teaching.
Last summer, a leading European politician sympathetic to Turkey's potential membership in the European
Union suggested that the Istanbul Municipality remove the"Welcome to Asia" sign on the bridge over the Bosporus,
arguing that the sign and its implication of the"Asian" side of Turkey would weaken Turkey's case in the European
Union. Despite my awareness of the Eurocentric constructedness of these continental borders, I realized that
I would not be happy to see the “Welcome to Asia” sign go away, at least not in this way. My admittedly idealist
internationalism makes me want to hold on to this feeble continental tie between Istanbul, Calcutta and Tokyo.
After all, our problem is not in the borders, or continental imaginations themselves, but in the value judgments
and political projects vested in them. I could not help but smile when I saw the welcome signs on both sides of
the Bosporus bridge during my last visit to Istanbul.
QuotesBy Cemil Aydin The idea of the West was not first born in Europe and simply spread to other parts of the world.
It was partly a product of reflection and rethinking by non-Western reformist intellectuals during the
nineteenth century. While we are familiar with the grand theories on the civilization of the West formulated
by Montesquieu and other European thinkers, we should recognize that non-Western intellectuals found these
theories insufficient and noninclusive and insisted on a more universalist interpretation of the secrets of
Europe's progress. The result, as best seen in the writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi and Namik Kemal during the
1870s, was an optimist reformist ideology of progress and civilization that refuted any permanent
association of universal civilization with climate, Christianity, race, or even imperialism. This global
vision of non-Western intellectuals tied their reform projects to a fine formulation of the relationship
between a vision of universal civilization and the historical experience of Europe that exhibited the
culmination of this universal process of progress. Their vision of a universal West was closely linked
with a desire to become equal members of the perceived civilized international society and to benefit
from the security and prosperity this globalizing international society promised. --
Cemil Aydin in"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought"About Cemil Aydin "Cemil Aydin, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia: Visions of the World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan Asian
Thought (2007) locates itself at the conjunction of debates about modernity as a universal category of our time
(that is, modernity as a periodizing device about the world we live in today) as opposed to modernity as a
specific autochthonous quality that defines a certain civilization (the West) and is lacking in the others,
who must learn it from the West. Focusing on the crucial formative period of modern nationalism (1880-1945),
Aydin brings a transnational vantage point to a key question in the intellectual history of Japan and Turkey,
and more broadly that of modern Asia and Europe, namely the genesis of civilizational identity politics.
Particularly interested in the impact of Japanese Orientalism on Islamic Asia, the proliferation of Asianist
ideologies and consolidation of global links between East Asia and West Asia in the inter-war years, this
erudite work draws on a dazzling range of primary source materials in Japanese and Turkish to explore Pan
Asianism-Pan Islamism that was articulated in a novel formulation of anti-Western internationalism. This is
a singularly significant contribution to modern international intellectual history and salient global debates
on race, empire, civilization and progress." --
Sucheta Mazumdar, Duke University, reviewing"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought""Cemil Aydin's book, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia is a timely and significant contribution to our
understanding of major intellectual forces that shape discourse about the West throughout the world. Focussing on
the specific cases of Ottoman and Japanese imperial responses the the challenges posed by the West in the modern
world, Aydin presents a carefully researched, historically grounded argument for the persistence of anti-
Westernism in cultures that are otherwise socially and religiously quite distinct. One cannot read this
stimulating work without re-thinking prevailing assumptions about what"the West" and"Asia" signify and why
they still retain such popularity among many intellectuals today. -- Kevin M Doak, Nippon Foundation Endowed
Chair in Japanese Studies, Georgetown University reviewing"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought""This volume is a rich intellectual history revealing the fascinating ways in which Pan-Islamism and
Pan-Asianism were intertwined." --
Matthew Connelly, associate professor of history, Columbia University reviewing"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought""Cemil Aydin has written a fascinating book of exceptional scholarly quality. It explores elegantly, with
impressive learning, the responses of Japanese and Ottoman civilizations to the West in the period 1880 to 1945.
This study in the history of ideas is surprisingly relevant to such current concerns as 'the clash of civilizations'
and 'the future of world order.'" --
Richard A. Falk, Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice, emeritus, and emeritus
professor of politics and international affairs, Princeton University
reviewing"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought""Cemil Aydin presents a profound analysis of anti-Westernism that transcends simplistic polemics about 'why they hate us' and offers a significant contribution to understanding intercultural relations in the modern era. Combining expertise in Middle Eastern and Asian studies, Aydin joins a clear global perspective with an in-depth historical study. The result is a comprehensive understanding of one of the major themes of modern global affairs."
—John Voll, professor of Islamic history and associate director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University
"Cemil Aydin's work brings fresh insight to Middle Eastern, Islamic, and world history. His Politics of
Anti-Westernism in Asia is a major, and highly original, contribution to all of these fields, and it will
set the standard for comparative work in modern Islamic intellectual history. Aydin's current project, on
which he is working as a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University's Department of Near Eastern Studies,
focuses on 20th century discourses on the idea of civilization. Influential Western as well as Muslim thinkers
were among those contributing to this civilizational discourse before and during the Cold War, though its contexts
and themes, as well as the ways in which these intellectuals interacted with and influenced one another, have
not been much studied so far. Nor has the highly interesting question, at the forefront of Aydin's work, of
how this civilizational discourse may have shaped facets of Islamist (or fundamentalist) thought across
Muslim societies. Like Aydin's first book, this is an innovative project, and it is certain to contribute much
to the study of religio-political trends in modern and contemporary Islam. --
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Niehaus Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion, Princeton University
reviewing"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia
Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought""Dr. Cemil Aydin is, as his new book The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia shows, an erudite scholar
destined to continue to make significant contributions to field of global history in general and to Middle
East and East Asian Studies in particular. He is also, however, an excellent teacher. Dr. Aydin, through
the use of textual analysis and class discussion, forces his students to confront the stereotypes held by
many Americans and, unfortunately, portrayed by mass media concerning the Middle East and Islam. Additionally,
Dr. Aydin is one of the most approachable professors I have ever encountered. His door was quite literally always
open to assist students. I was the beneficiary of much of this assistance while working toward my B.A. in History
(2006) at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. It was Dr. Aydin's classes and advice that helped me
decide to pursue a graduate degree in Middle East Studies. I, unfortunately, held many negative stereotypes of
the Middle East when I first entered Dr. Aydin's survey of Middle East History. That class, however, avoided
becoming what Roger Owen described as “another breathless account of battles, murders, and the rapid rise and
fall of different dynasties” by engaging students with primary texts from the first day of class. It is virtually
impossible to continue to view Islam or the Middle East as monolithic, unchanging, religiously fanatic entities,
as the legacy of Orientalism has conditioned many students to do, when confronted with alternative methodologies
of history that incorporate social, economic, and political factors often written by Middle Eastern scholars rather
than Westerners. I am indebted to Dr. Aydin for opening my eyes to the more complex, but ultimately more accurate,
history of the Middle East and I have no doubt that he will continue to be a positive influence on students and
scholars alike for years to come.
-- Alan Bradley Campbell, M.A. Student in Middle Eastern History, NYU"As a double-major in Political Science and History and a minor in
Islamic Studies, I can confidently state that Dr. Aydin is undoubtedly
one of the finest professors on campus. In addition to being an
exceptional lecturer, he is also a phenomenal source of knowledge in
Middle Eastern and Japanese studies. His unique approach in the
classroom always stimulated meaningful discussions and encouraged
students to actively engage the texts and concepts presented. Although I
benefited greatly from the attentive structure of course content and the
incorporation of a wide spectrum of reading selections, what I most
appreciated about Professor Aydin's courses was his ability to provoke
original thought in his students. Professor Aydin's genial demeanor and
sense of humour has lent him a reputation of being approachable and won
him high regard among students. He was consistently objective and never
allowed his personal beliefs to hinder open discussion and a respectful
atmosphere. Professor Aydin is truly a brilliant example for my
generation's young aspiring scholars." --
Narcisa Popovici, Senior Student, Major in History and Political
Science, UNCC |