History Faculty Database
History
Arts & Sciences
Duke University

 HOME > Arts & Sciences > History > Faculty    Search Help Login pdf version printable version 

Mustafa O. Tuna, Associate Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies

Mustafa O. Tuna

Mustafa Tuna (Ph.D. 2009, Princeton University) is Associate Professor at the Departments of Slavic and Eurasian Studies & History at Duke University and is affiliated with the Duke Islamic Studies Center. His research focuses on Islam and modernity, which he has studied primarily in the historical contexts of Central Eurasia, especially the Russian empire's Volga-Ural region, Central Asia, and modern Turkey. His earlier research examines the often-intertwined roles of Islam, social networks, state or elite interventions, infrastructural changes, and the globalization of European modernity in transforming Muslim communities. His first book, titled Imperial Russia's Muslims: Islam, Empire, and European Modernity, 1788-1917, is published by Cambridge University Press in the "Critical Perspectives on Empire Series." His current project explores encounters between the Sunni Islamic and European secular intellectual traditions with a focus on the ontological, epistemological, and spiritual implications of this encounter for Muslims since the early-twentieth century. His nearly complete second book project, titled Knowing God in the Secular Age: Existence, Knowledge, and Striving for Excellence in the Works of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (1878-1960), studies these implications in the case of the endeavors of Said Nursi (1878-1960), a Kurdish scholar of Islam from Turkey, to negotiate the changing modern world's challenges for Islam and Muslims. Additionally, he translated one of Nursi's major works, Mathnawi al-Arabi al-Nuri (Luminous Couplets) from Arabic into English and is now preparing this translation for publication as a critical edition. He also investigates the transmission and evolution of Islamic knowledge and practices comparatively in the Turkish and Soviet contexts in preparation for a third monograph. Dr. Tuna is married and has two sons.

Contact Info:
Office Location:  316 Languages Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  http://people.duke.edu/~mt125/

Teaching (Spring 2024):

  • SES 373S.01, BETWEEN MOSCOW, BEIJING, DELHI Synopsis
    Languages 320, TuTh 01:25 PM-02:40 PM
    (also cross-listed as HISTORY 216S.01, ICS 373S.01)
  • SES 375S.01, SOCIAL ENGINEERING & MOVEMENTS Synopsis
    Languages 208, TuTh 03:05 PM-04:20 PM
    (also cross-listed as HISTORY 333S.01, POLSCI 359S.01, PUBPOL 282S.01)
  • SES 773S.01, BETWEEN MOSCOW, BEIJING, DELHI Synopsis
    Languages 320, TuTh 01:25 PM-02:40 PM
Office Hours:

By email appointment.
Education:

Ph.D.Princeton University2008
PhDPrinceton University2009
M.A.Princeton University2004
M.A.Indiana University at Indianapolis2001
B.A. (International Relations) ValedictorianBilkent University, Turkey1998
Specialties:

European and Russia
African, Middle East and Asia
Global Transnational History
Comparative Colonial Studies
Politics, Public Life and Governance
Research Interests: Turkic and Muslim peoples of Central Eurasia

Current projects: Imperial Russia’s Muslims: Islam, Empire, and European Modernity in the Volga-Ural Heartland, 1788-1917., “Kazan Tatar Teachers’ School: The Successful Failure of Russification in Late Imperial Russia.” Under review., “Empire Gone Astray: the Story of Nikolai Ivanovich Il’minskii and His Followers.”, “Another Turkish Modernization: Response of the Grassroots.”

Mustafa Tuna's research focuses on social and cultural change among the Muslim communities of Central Eurasia, especially Russia's Volga-Ural region and modern Turkey, since the early-nineteenth century. He is particularly interested in identifying the often intertwined roles of Islam, social networks, state or elite interventions, infrastructural changes, and the globalization of European modernity in transforming Muslim communities. His first book, titled Imperial Russia's Muslims: Islam, Empire, and European Modernity, 1788-1917, is under contract with Cambridge University Press to be published in the "Critical Perspectives on Empire Series." And his second book project investigates the transmission and evolution of Islamic knowledge and practices comparatively in the Ottoman/Turkish and Tsarist/Soviet cases.

Areas of Interest:

Turkic and Muslim peoples of the Russian empire and the Soviet Union
Islam and modernity
Empire as a subject of historical analysis
Networks as a subject and instrument of historical analysis
Russian empire and the Soviet Union
Late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey
The survival and transformation of Islamic tradition in Republican Turkey
Jewish experience in major empires

Keywords:

Asia, Central • Eurasia • Islam and science • Islam and secularism • Muslim Dialectical Theology • Muslim diaspora • Muslim educators • Muslim Intellectual History • Russian Empire • Turkey • Turkish Republic

Curriculum Vitae
Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Tuna, MO, Rusya Imparatorlugu'nun Muslumanlar Islam, Imparatorluk ve Avrupa Modernitesi (1788-1914) (2022), ISBN 6057646878
  2. Tuna, M, Anti-Muslim Fear Narrative and the Ban on Said Nursi's Works as “Extremist Literature” in Russia, Slavic Review, vol. 79 no. 1 (2020), pp. 28-50, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi]  [abs]
  3. Tuna, M; Tahtakıran, E, Glossary of Islamic Terms in the Light of the Risale-i Nur (2020), RNK
  4. Tuna, M, THE MISSING TURKISH REVOLUTION: COMPARING VILLAGE-LEVEL CHANGE AND CONTINUITY IN REPUBLICAN TURKEY AND SOVIET CENTRAL ASIA, 1920–50, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 50 no. 1 (February, 2018), pp. 23-43, Cambridge University Press (CUP) [doi]  [abs]
  5. Tuna, M, At the Vanguard of Contemporary Muslim Thought: Reading Said Nursi into the Islamic Tradition, Journal of Islamic Studies, vol. 28 no. 3 (September, 2017), pp. 311-340, Oxford University Press (OUP) [doi]


Duke University * Arts & Sciences * History * Faculty * Staff * Grad * Reload * Login