Dr. Lecturer Muzaffer Özgüleş was deemed worthy of the “Senior Academician Award.”
Muzaffer Özgüleş, Assistant Professor at the Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design at Alanya University, has been awarded the “Senior Scholar Award” worth 10,000 British pounds, given annually by the Barakat Trust to conduct research for three months at Oxford University in England. Architectural historian and children’s book author Muzaffer Özgüleş, who is also the coordinator of the recently successfully completed EU project called Palimpsest Cities, provided the following information about the work he will conduct in Oxford:
“My research project is titled ‘Historicizing and Visualizing the Evolution of Ottoman Architecture in Istanbul from the mid-15th to early 20th century’. I will be at the University of Oxford as a “visiting scholar” between March 20, 2026 and June 20, 2026, both to conduct this study and to give a seminar on my research. My aim is to critically re-evaluate Ottoman architecture in Istanbul from the 15th to the 20th century and analyze long-term construction patterns.
In this project, I plan to use digital tools such as the mobile application Timeline Travel that I developed and the Ottoman buildings database that I created as part of my previous EU project. I will try to fill a significant gap in Ottoman architectural historiography by including structures that have clues in visual and written archives but have not survived to the present day, and to bring a new data-driven interpretation to Istanbul’s silhouette and built environment that have transformed over the centuries. I believe that Oxford University will provide an ideal environment to increase the impact of my work, thanks to its rich library and archives, expertise in digital social sciences, and strong academic network. I also aim to produce an academic publication at the end of my work.”
Özgüleş, who stated that she had previously been at Oxford University in 2014-2015 with a postdoctoral research grant called the “Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship” to conduct her project titled “Architectural Activities of Ottoman Dynasty Women and Gülnuş Sultan”, emphasized that this long-established university has a fascinating wealth of resources for researchers. The Turkish translation of the book, which is the product of the postdoctoral study and was published in 2017 under the label IB Tauris, will be published this month by Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları under the title “Women Patrons of the Ottoman World: Gülnuş Sultan and Her Architectural Heritage”.
Özgüleş, who stated that she had previously been at Oxford University in 2014-2015 with a postdoctoral research grant called the “Barakat Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship” to conduct her project titled “Architectural Activities of Ottoman Dynasty Women and Gülnuş Sultan”, emphasized that this long-established university has a fascinating wealth of resources for researchers. The Turkish translation of the book, which is the product of the postdoctoral study and was published in 2017 under the label IB Tauris, will be published this month by Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları under the title “Women Patrons of the Ottoman World: Gülnuş Sultan and Her Architectural Heritage”.