The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) is delighted to announce the winner of the 2024 Masters Dissertation Prize, recognising outstanding postgraduate research related to Türkiye and the wider region of western Asia.
This year’s prize was awarded to Katharina Krause, a former student at the University of Oxford and currently a PhD student at the University of Chicago, for their MA dissertation titled A Matter of Morals. Writing about Yemen in the Late Ottoman Empire (1908-1912). The Panel commended Katharina’s research for its innovative approach to developing a postcolonial perspective on Ottoman history, focusing on Yemen and its representation in late Ottoman writing. Through microhistorical analysis of soldiers’ and travellers’ memoirs, Katharina convincingly argues that supposedly ‘peripheral’ places in the Empire played a key role in building an exceptionalist logic – a narrative that not only served to justify an empire’s alleged superiority but also helped define the ideal, moral Ottoman subject within the imperial centre.
As one of the Panel members remarked, Katharina’s research also “shows how the strategies used by the Ottomans to incorporate Yemen offer parallels to modern Türkiye’s challenges in integrating diverse minority groups. The emphasis on emotions like compassion, patriotism, and moral duty in Ottoman governance also provides historical context to building of modern Turkish identity and political discourse that continues to leverage emotional appeals.”
Upon learning of the award, Katharina commented enthusiastically: “I am immensely grateful for the awarding Panel’s recognition of my work as well as the BIAA’s important support of junior researchers across a range of disciplines in the UK.” As part of the Prize, they have been offered three years’ BIAA membership.
The panel received an excellent group of submissions that were diverse in theme, period and approach, and they were extremely impressed with the quality.
The BIAA Masters Dissertation Prize was developed in 2022 to promote, recognise and support excellent research by scholars engaged in the study of Türkiye and the Black Sea region in any period or discipline. Many BIAA members generously contributed to a fundraising effort to support an annual prize of £500, plus BIAA membership. You can make a donation to the BIAA Masters Dissertation Prize Fund today to ensure long-term support for this prize. The competition is open annually to students completing dissertations for a taught Masters course in a UK University or Higher Education Institution submitted in the past academic year. The call for submissions comes in November of each year. See the current open calls for BIAA Grants and Opportunities here.