DSS Mobile (Distinguished Speaker Series)
USA Library AuditoriumSafe Haven in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey 1492-2012
Dr. Richard Leon Chambers
Associate Professor Emeritus of Turkish Language and Civilization
Department of Near East Languages and Civilizations
The University of Chicago
One of the more positive, but virtually unknown, chapters of European/Middle Eastern History is the safe haven offered by the Ottoman Empire for refugees fleeing political, ethnic, or religious oppression.
Dr. Richard Chambers is former Director of The University of Chicago's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a former President of the American Research Institute in Turkey. He grew up in Brundidge (Pike County) Alabama. Dr. Chambers has held both elective and appointive positions in the Turkish Studies Association and the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages. He was a Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Summer Intensive Turkish Language Program at Bosphorus University in Istanbul. His education includes the University of Alabama (B.S. and M.A. in History) and Princeton University (Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies).
