Education

2023-2028 (Current) Ph.D. in History, University of Virginia
2021-2023 Digital Humanities Certificate Program, University of Virginia
2021-2023 M.A. in History, University of Virginia
2018-2022 M.A. in Comparative Studies in History and Society, Koç University
2013-2018 B.A. in History, Istanbul Bilgi University
2017 Exchange Student, in the Department of History, Ghent University

Biography

I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia, working on slavery and social history in the early modern and modern Middle East.

In 2018, I graduated with high honors from Istanbul Bilgi University and began my Master's in the Comparative Studies in History and Society program at Koç University. During my undergraduate studies, I took courses at the History Department of Ghent University through the Erasmus Exchange Program. Later, as graduate student, I interned for the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. 

I joined the University of Virginia in 2021, where I completed my master's degree in history, and Digital Humanities Certificate Program. I am now pursuing my doctoral studies in this vibrant academic environment.

My dissertation project explores the history of the Imperial Slave Market in Istanbul through multiple analytical layers, aligning with the interdisciplinary methods from spatial, legal, cultural, architectural, and digital history. In my research, I aim to reconstruct the market’s architectural structure and spatial organization using both historical sources and digital tools, examine its socio-economic role within the Ottoman imperial capital, and trace how functions and meanings of this space shifted over time. I am particularly interested in the human experiences and perceptions embedded in this space, as reflected in both local and foreign accounts, and in analyzing them through both macro and micro historical approaches. 

This project is supported by the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship which was essential to complete innovative aspects of my research. 

Media Appearances

Musa K. Azimli selected as 2023 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellow

https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/musa-k-azimli/ 

My Digital Humanities Portfolio: musaazimli.myportfolio.com 

Awards and Honors

• Dumas Malone Graduate Research Fellowship (2025)
• W. Nathaniel Howell Research Grant (2025) 
• Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship (2023)
• Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Summer Research Fellowship, University of Virginia (2023)
• Raven Society Fellowship, University of Virginia (2023)
• Graduate Global Research Fellowship, Center for Global Inquiry& Innovation (2023)
• Edward Vaughan Howell Fellowship (2021)
• University of Virginia PhD Fellowship (2021-2028)
• Ottoman Summer Program Scholarship, Koç University (ANAMED) (2020)
• Koç University M.A Scholarship (2018-2021)
• High Honors Certificate, Istanbul Bilgi University (July 2018)
• ÖSYM Full Scholarship (Coverage of Undergraduate Degree 2013-2018)

Courses Taught

I worked as a Teaching Assistant for:

• HIME 2001: The Making of the Islamic World (Fall 2022)
• HIME 2002: The Making of the Modern Middle East (Spring 2023) 
• HIME 2002: The Making of the Modern Middle East (Fall 2024) 
• HIST 2014: Fascism: A Global History (Spring 2025) 
• HIST 2212: Maps in World History (Fall 2025)