Faculty

College / Department

Teaching areas

Global History, Middle Eastern Studies, Modern History, Middle Eastern and Global Politics, Political Economy.

Research areas

Global History, Comparative Imperialism from 19th Century to Present. Italian, Portuguese, French, and Ottoman imperial projects. Contemporary Middle East (Arabia, Syria, Turkey) and Balkan (Albania/Kosovo) politics. Global Political Economy and Environmental History of Borderlands.

Education

PhD, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Histor, New York University, United States

MA, Political Theory and Historical Studies, New School for Social Research, United States

Professional experience

Associate/Docent at Stockholm University, Sweden(2016 - 2019)

Visiting Associate Professor at Copenhagen University, Denmark(2018 - 2018)

Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians University, Germany - 2018)

Associate Professor at University of Antwerp, Belgium(2014 - 2015)

Associate Professor at Georgia State University, United States(2006 - 2015)

Senior Research Fellow at Leipzig University, Germany(2010 - 2014)

Associate Professor at Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland(2013 - 2013)

Visiting Lecturer and Dir. of Overseas Program at American University, United States(2005 - 2010)

Memberships

American Historical Association - present

Middle Eastern Studies Association - present

Society of Albanian Studies - present

Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies - present

Swedish Institute - present

Czech Academy of Science, 2020 - present

Contact

[email protected]

+971 6 515 2406

Dr. Isa Blumi

Isa Blumi is Associate Professor at the International Studies Department. He holds a PhD in History and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies from New York University and a Master of Political Science and Historical Studies from The New School for Social Research, New York. Dr. Blumi rejoins AUS after spending the last 10 years teaching and researching in universities located in Germany, Belgium, Turkey, the USA, Sweden, Switzerland, and Albania/Kosovo.

Publications

Isa Blumi, The Albanian Question Looms Over the Balkans Again, Published, Current History, 119, 815, pp. 95-100, 2020

Isa Blumi, Navigating the Challenge of Liberalism: The Albanian Orthodox Church’s Century, Published, pp. 197-222, 2019

Isa Blumi, Albanian Slide: The Roots to NATO’s Pending Lost Balkan Enterprise, Published, Insight Turkey, 21, 2, pp. 149-170, 2019

Isa Blumi, Destroying Yemen: What Chaos in Arabia tells us About the World , Published, 2018

Isa Blumi, Nothing New: Islamophobia by Default in Postwar Europe, Published, IRCICA Journal, 6, 1, pp. 29-65, 2017

Isa Blumi, “Introduction to Special Issue: Islamophobia in Europe”, Published, IRCICA Journal, 6, 1, pp. 1-28, 2017

Isa Blumi, Reorientating European Imperialism: How Ottomanism Went Global, Published, Die Welt des Islams, 56, 3/4, pp. 290-316, 2016

Isa Blumi, An Honorable Break from Besa: Reconsidering Ottoman Administration in the Balkans, 1850-1881, Published, European Journal of Turkish Studies , 2014

Isa Blumi, Ottoman Refugees, 1878-1939: Migration in a Post-Imperial World , Published, 2013

Isa Blumi, War & Nationalism: The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and Socio-Political Implications, Published, 2013

Isa Blumi, Foundations of Modernity: Human Agency and the Imperial State , Published, 2012

Isa Blumi, Reinstating the Ottomans: Alternative Balkan Modernities, 1800-1912 , Published, 2011

Isa Blumi, Chaos in Yemen: Societal Collapse and the New Authoritarianism , Published, 2010

Isa Blumi, The Frontier as a Measure of Imperial Power: Local Limits to Empire in Yemen, 1872 to 1914, Published, Proceedings of the British Academy , 156, pp. 289-304, 2009

Isa Blumi, Rethinking the Late Ottoman Empire: A Comparative Social and Political History of Albania and Yemen, 1878-1918, Published, 2003

Isa Blumi, Contesting the Edges of the Ottoman Empire: Rethinking Ethnic and Sectarian Boundaries in the Malësore, 1878-1912, Published, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 35, 2, pp. 237-256, 2003

Isa Blumi, Defining Social Spaces by Way of Deletion: The Untold Story of Albanian Migration in the Post-war Period, Published, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 29, 6, pp. 949-965, 2003

Isa Blumi, The Islamist Challenge in Kosova, Published, Current History, 101, 2, pp. 124-128, 2003

Isa Blumi, Thwarting the Ottoman Empire: Smuggling through the Empire’s New Frontiers in Ottoman Yemen and Albania, 1878-1910, Published, International Journal of Turkish Studies , 9, 2, pp. 255-274, 2003

Isa Blumi, Publishers, Hitmen, Diplomats, and Dreamers: Switzerland’s Ottoman-Albanian Diaspora, 1899-1920, Published, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte/Revue Suisse d’Histoire , 52, pp. 309-320, 2002

Isa Blumi, Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans: Educational Reform in the Vilayets of Manastir and Yanya, 1878-1912, Published, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East , 21, pp. 15-23, 2001

Isa Blumi, Hoxha’s Class War: The Cultural Revolution in Albania, Published, East European Quarterly, 33, 3, pp. 534-569, 1999

Isa Blumi, The Commodification of Otherness in the Study of the Balkans: How to Look at the Albanian, Published, East European Politics and Societies, 12, 3, pp. 527-569, 1998

Isa Blumi, The Politics of Culture and Power: The Roots of Hoxha’s Postwar State, Published, East European Quarterly, 31, 3, pp. 409-428, 1997

Conference Presentations

Isa Blumi, Istanbul: The East Mediterranean's Conduit of Arab/Balkan Emigrational Exchange", Arabicities of Istanbul: Setting the Research Agenda, Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, February, 2020

Isa Blumi, Defining Empire: The Commodification of Borderland Nature in Albania and Yemen, Global Environmental Borderlands in the Age of Empire, Taos, New Mexico, United States, October, 2019

Isa Blumi, Reading between the Lines: The Balkan Borderlands as History of the Modern World, Borders in Southeast Europe, Tutzing, Bavaria, Germany, September, 2019

Isa Blumi, Ruptures in the generational transmission of bridal wear in Kosovo/Albania, THE MULTIPLE MATERIALITIES OF MUSLIM MARRIAGES, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June, 2019

Isa Blumi, Imperial Hinterlands: The Commodification of Borderland Nature in the Adriatic and Red Seas, 1878-1920, Arab Crossroads Lunchtime Lecture Series, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, April, 2019

Isa Blumi, Infringements of History: Borders and the International Regime of Regulated Mobility: The Cases of Yemen and Albania, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, December, 2018

Isa Blumi, Fan Noli: Albanian State-building, culture and networks in interwar Balkans, The Last Ottoman Generation and Interwar Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark, December, 2018

Isa Blumi, The Ottoman Refugee and Euro-American Colonial Terror: A Global Story, Santa Cruz, California, United States, November, 2018

Isa Blumi, Why Yemen’s Ruin: How to Study Capitalism’s Artifices of History, “Notes from the Field” series, Davis, California, United States, November, 2018

Isa Blumi, Mobilizing Ottoman Multinationalism: A Global Story about the Modern World, Seminar Viribus Unitis: Myths and Narratives of Habsburg and Ottoman Multinationalism, 1848-1918, Copenhagen, Denmark, November, 2018

Isa Blumi, Narrating Global Transition: Challenges to Analyzing the Collapse, National Defense University, Islamabad, Pakistan, October, 2018

Isa Blumi, Leaving Europe to Get In: Lessons from Balkan Muslim Journeys, Seminar: Leaving Europe: Alternative Routes Out/Upward Mobility, Leuven, Belgium, September, 2018

Isa Blumi, Unsettled History: Recovering the Ottoman Context in World War I Migration Patterns, TEAW Symposium: To End All Wars? Geopolitical Aftermath and Commemorative Legacies of the First World War, Ypres, Belgium, August, 2018

Isa Blumi, Violence, Memory and Cinema in the MEM Region: Soft Power and the Investment in Memory, Seminar Middle East Mediterranean Region: Narratives, Representations, Images, Ticino, Switzerland, August, 2018

Isa Blumi, Barely Home: Marriage Politics among Balkan Migrants since 1968, Graduate Student Development Seminar on Marriage among Muslims in Europe, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June, 2018

Isa Blumi, Yemen’s Ruination: Preempting Capitalism’s Artifices of History, ANSO Seminar Series, Geneva, Switzerland, April, 2018

Isa Blumi, The Global Regime of Migration: Understanding the Logistics of Historical Refugees, Munich, Bavaria, Germany, January, 2018

Isa Blumi, Settling Globally: The Logistics of History and the Consequences of Refugees, SUITS: Higher Seminar, Stockholm, Sweden, December, 2017

Isa Blumi, Adapting to Global Transformations: Finance Capitalism and Balkan Muslim Migrations to the Larger World, 1900-1919, Faculty of Arts, Middle Eastern Lecture Series, Prague, Czech Republic, November, 2017

Isa Blumi, War in the Larger Region and the Future of Arabia: Making Sense of the Chaos, Orientální ústav, Institute Seminar Series, Prague, Czech Republic, November, 2017

Isa Blumi, Osmanları Küreselleştirmek: Yemen ve Emperyalist Mirası, Lecture Series History Department, Istanbul, Turkey, November, 2017

Isa Blumi, Transitional Borderlands: Ottoman Migrants and the New World Order of Plunder, Lecture Series, Sofia, Bulgaria, October, 2017

Isa Blumi, Settling Globally: The Logistics of History and the Consequences of Refugees, Lecture Series, Budapest, Hungary, September, 2017

Isa Blumi, Transitional Regimes and the Staggered Rise of the Ethno-national/Sectarian Citizen in Arabia and the Balkans, 1900-1939, Regular Lecture Series, Oslo, Norway, August, 2017

Isa Blumi, Pluralism on Whose Terms? The Dangers of Post-Ottoman Regimes of Religious Tolerance in the Balkans and Turkey, Recreating Pluralism: Socio-Religious Continuity in Post-Ottoman Societies, Inaugural Workshop Focused on Shrines: Places of Inter-Communal Connection, Istanbul, Turkey, June, 2017

Isa Blumi, Terms and Concepts in Historical Perspective for the MENA Region, Working Group on Regional (Dis)order in the Middle East: Historical Legacies and Current Shifts, Bologna, Italy, April, 2017

Isa Blumi, Nothing New: Islamophobia by Default in Postwar Migration of Turkish and Balkan Muslims to Germany, Workshop on Islamophobia in Europe, Istanbul, Turkey, January, 2017

Awards and Honors

Received, Visiting Research Fellow, Department of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies, 2018

Received, Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies, LMU-Munich, 2018

Received, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Area Studies, Leipzig University, 2010

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) , 2004

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, CAORC, 2004

Received, Title VIII Supported Short-term Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2004

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, American Research Institute of Turkey/NEH, 2003

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, Fulbright-Hays, 2002

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, SSRC , 2001

Received, SSRC/ACLS International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship (IDRF), SSRC/ACLS , 2001

Received, Dissertation Research Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, 2001

Received, Foreign Languages and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, Title VI , US Government, 1998