I am a specialist in the history of the early modern Ottoman empire, although I also have interests in the history of geography and cartography, global exploration, and comparative empires. I have just completed my first book, a study of Ottoman expansion in the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth century, which explored the ways in which the growth of the Ottoman Empire during this period was part of the same historical process that witnessed the contemporaneous expansion of numerous other imperial powers, ranging from the overseas empires of Spain and Portugal to rival Islamic states like Mughal India and Safavid Iran. My next major project, tentatively titled "Curiosity and Intolerance: The Paradox of Early Modernity," is a comparative study of the development of ethnographic modes of writing in early modern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. At the same time I am also engaged in several smaller research projects on topics including corsairs and the development of Ottoman naval technology, the connection between naval power and deforestation in the Mediterranean region, and a geo-historical study of the earthquake of Dubrovnik in 1667.
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