Yeliz Teber

D.PHIL. (PH.D.) candidate in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Khalili Research Centre
Blackfriars Hall Student
yeliz.teber@ames.ox.ac.uk 

Education: 

2016-Present: DPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford
Supervisor: Associate Professor Zeynep Yürekli
Thesis Title: A Sheikh Family in the Ottoman Empire: The Çelebis at the Convent of Hacı Bektaş, 1470s-1820s

2014-2016: MPhil in Islamic Art and Architecture at the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford (Distinction)
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Zeynep Yürekli
Dissertation Title: Legend and Architectural Patronage in the Balkans: Sarı Saltuk in the Ottoman Political Context

Scholarships & Grants & Awards:

2016-2022: Khalili Research Centre Scholarship,
2022: Best Graduate Student Paper Award, Kizilbash/Alevi-Bektashi History Workshop,
2022: William & Mary College Travel Grant, 
2021: Historians of Islamic Art Association, Grabar Travel Grant,
2020: UKRI, Global Challenges Research Fund,
2019 and 2017: Barakat Trust Travel Grant, 
2018: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, Centenary Research Scholarship,
2017-2018: Barakat Trust Oxford Studentship, 
2017: Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association, Vangelis Kechriotis Memorial Travel Grant, 
2017: Blackfriars Hall Student Grant, 
2014-2016: Barakat Trust Junior Student Scholarship, 
2015: Arabic Language Course in Amman, Jordan, co-funded by the Khalili Research Centre, Wolfson College, and Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies.

Teaching Experience:

July 2022: Workshop Lecturer, UNIQ course to state school students, University of Oxford, 
Trinity Term 2022: Undergraduate Tutor, University of Oxford, 
2020-2021: Lecturer of Ottoman Texts Reading Group, University of Oxford.

Research Experience: 

2014-Present: Conducted library, archival and museum research, and surveyed and documented Ottoman buildings, building remains and gravestones in Turkey, Greece, Romania, and Albania during the M.PHIL. and D.PHIL.

Feb. 2017-Oct. 2018: Worked as a research assistant at Assoc. Prof. Zeynep Yürekli’s project, funded by the John Fell Fund, and titled ‘Clash of civilizations’ in late medieval Southwest Asia: Interfaith transference of sacred sites and shrines in Anatolia/Thrace and the Indian subcontinent. Created a database of building sites dedicated to Prophet-Saint Hızır in Anatolia and Thrace. 

Presentations:

‘The Spiritual Descent of the Çelebis in Light of New Evidence’, in First Biennial International Conference of Alevism Studies, University of Westminster, London, UK, 5-7 July 2023.

‘The Establishment of the Leadership at the Shrine of Hacı Bektaş: The Spiritual Descent of the Çelebis in Light of New Evidence’, in New Horizons in Kizilbash/Alevi-Bektashi History Workshop, co-organized by Harvard University and William and Mary College, in-person and e-Conference, USA, 29-30 April-1 May 2022.

‘Tracing the Life of Kızıl Deli from Anatolia to Thrace’, in Bektashism in the Southern Balkans: A Symposium in Memory of Efstratios Zenginis, co-organized by Harvard University and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, e-Conference, 30-31 October 2021.

‘Muslim “Heretics” in Ottoman Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries’, in Radical Religious Communities in Premodern Societies, Tábor, Czech Republic, 20-22 October 2021.

Research Interests:

Renunciatory dervish groups in Eastern Europe and the Middle East,
Abdals, Bektashis and Kizilbash in Ottoman Anatolia and Balkans,
Sufi shrines, material, and visual culture,
Hagiography and Ottoman historiography,
Contemporary Alevi movements in Turkey.