Jointly hosted on our campus by Özyeğin University and New York University, the fourth edition of Women Talking History explored women’s presence in social and public life from the Ottoman Empire through the early years of the Republic of Türkiye. Bringing together scholars from universities across Türkiye, the conference provided a platform for sharing current research on women’s history and fostering dialogue across diverse academic perspectives.

The conference examined women’s historical roles and the research surrounding them across areas including administration, everyday life, production, law, politics, and literature. Sessions covered a broad range of topics, from the social and spatial organization in the modern era to belief, identity, and social networks, as well as agricultural production, diplomacy, and everyday practices.

Panels dedicated to the late Ottoman and early Republican periods offered an interdisciplinary exploration of women’s literary production, experiences of citizenship, and their evolving relationship with gender, law, and politics. The discussions held throughout the conference helped bring greater visibility to emerging areas of research in women’s history while also fostering new opportunities for interdisciplinary academic collaboration.