Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky

Topics of Interest:
Late Ottoman History, Refugee and Migration Studies, Trans-Imperial Studies, Borders, Networks, Diasporas

Countries/Regions of Interest:
​Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Balkans, Caucasus

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky is a Ph.D. Candidate in Ottoman and Modern Middle Eastern History at Stanford University. His dissertation project explores migration and resettlement of Muslim refugees from the Russian Empire's North Caucasus region in the Ottoman Empire in the 1860-1914 period. He explores the social and economic integration of refugees, particularly in the southern Levant and the northern Balkans. Through the study of petitions and private letters, he also investigates the networks created by refugees between the Ottoman and Russian empires.
 
Vladimir became interested in the political economy of the late Ottoman Empire through his work on the "economy of resettlement" of Muslim refugees. During his archival research, he came across Ottoman land records, preserved in Amman, and land-related petitions and tax reports, held in Sofia. Those documents provide a new perspective on how refugee settlements fit into the economy of their host regions. The allotment of land to refugees had an impact on the evolution of new land regime(s) across the empire and increased competition over land and resources, which contributed to inter-communal conflicts breaking out in the Balkans, Anatolia, and Greater Syria in the late Ottoman era.
 
Vladimir conducted archival research for his dissertation in state and private archives in Turkey, Jordan, Bulgaria, Georgia, the United Kingdom, and Russia, including its autonomous republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia-Alania, and Dagestan. His primary research languages are Arabic, Ottoman and Modern Turkish, and Russian. Vladimir's work was supported by research fellowships from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR), the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS), and Stanford University's Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies, Globalizing Eurasia Grant, and Graduate Research Opportunity award.
 
Vladimir completed an undergraduate degree in Arabic and International Relations at the University of St Andrews. He studied abroad in Syria and Egypt, followed by a research internship in Israel. He obtained a Master's degree in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he held the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World studentship.