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Helen Pfeifer is an Associate Professor at the University of Cambridge, specializing in Early Ottoman History. She received her Ph.D. from Princeton University before joining Cambridge in 2014. Her research interests encompass the social and cultural dynamics of the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with a particular focus on modern-day Syria and Turkey. Her book, 'Empire Salons: Conquest Community in the Early Modern Ottoman Lands' (2022), examines the social consequences of the Ottoman incorporation of Arab lands, utilizing Arabic and Turkish sources to demonstrate how gentlemanly salons facilitated communication across the extensive empire. She has been honored with the Albert Hourani Book Award Honorable Mention for her contributions to Ottoman studies. In her current project, she explores human-animal relations within the Ottoman context. Pfeifer has received support from notable organizations including the American Historical Association and the Fulbright Association. Starting in 2026, she will serve as an editor for the Historical Journal. She is committed to supervising students in Ottoman history from 1300 to 1800 and teaches various courses at both undergraduate and MPhil levels, incorporating themes of global early modernity and comparative empires into her curriculum. In 2024, she received the Pilkington Prize for her teaching excellence.
Standard postgraduate requirements for Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and related humanities departments.