Christine Philliou, assistant professor, specializes in the
political and social history of the Ottoman Empire, particularly in the
18th and 19th centuries. Her forthcoming book, Biography of an Empire:
Practicing Ottoman Governance in the Age of Revolutions (University of
California Press) examines the changes in Ottoman governance leading up
to the Tanzimat reforms of the mid-nineteenth century. It does so using
the vantage point of Phanariots, an Orthodox Christian elite that was
intimately involved in the day-to-day work of governance even though
structurally excluded from the Ottoman state.
