Team
The project team brings together distinguished researchers across multiple locations, with the University of Vienna serving as the host institution and Koç University and University of Sofia as official project partners. Researchers from other institutions have joined the team over the course of the project, further broadening its institutional reach and scholarly expertise.
University of Vienna
PI of the project. Trained as a historian of the Ottoman Empire, Grigor Boykov's research and publications focus on the social history of the Balkans under Ottoman rule, as well as on the application of digital tools and methods in historical research.
Video intro
Koç University
M. Erdem Kabadayı is an economic historian whose interdisciplinary research combines historical sources with advanced Digital and GeoHumanities methods, including GIS and GeoAI, to identify long-term population and economic geography.
Video intro
University of Sofia
Chavdar Kirilov is a medieval and Ottoman archaeologist with extensive experience in excavations and non-destructive field research in the Balkans, specializing in remote sensing and the integration of historical and archaeological data through a range of digital tools.
Video intro
University of Vienna
Mariya Kiprovska is a historian of the early modern Ottoman Empire whose research adopts a decentralized perspective on governance by examining Balkan frontier elites as distinct “power nodes” that shaped regional socio-political dynamics and impacted imperial rule.
Video intro
Efe Erünal
Koç University
Efe Erünal’s research and publications focus on the economic and demographic history of the Ottoman Empire and post-Ottoman nation-states, combining advanced GeoHumanities methods with pioneering work in training HTR models for Ottoman tax registers.
Video intro
University of Sarajevo
Emir Filipović is a historian of the medieval and early Ottoman Balkans whose work examines political, social, and cultural dynamics, with particular attention to elites, dynastic networks, and mechanisms of power and legitimacy in a regional and comparative perspective.
Video intro
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Phokion Kotzageorgis is a historian of the Ottoman Empire whose work explores provincial administration, fiscal practices, and social relations in the Balkans, with a strong emphasis on archival research and on urban, demographic, and monastic history.
Ionian University
Sophia Laiou is a historian whose work explores the economic and social networks of the Hellenic and eastern Mediterranean world under Ottoman rule, with particular attention to fiscal practices, trade, and monastic estates as key components of regional economic life.
Koç University
Osman Özkan's work explores the maritime and economic history of the Ottoman world. He studies the development of historical transport networks, integrating archival research with spatial and geospatial analysis to illuminate broader patterns of connectivity.
University of Vienna
Mik Tristan Gashi is a Master’s student at the University of Vienna. His research and MA thesis focus on the social and economic impact of slavery and the slave trade in the early modern Ottoman Balkans and the Habsburg Empire.