After reading Philosophy (BA/Bogazici University) and Sociology (MA/Bogazici University) & Film and TV Studies (MA/Istanbul Bilgi University), Aliye Fatma Mataraci moved on to History (PhD/Bogazici University & Princeton University). She discovered there is no need for a time-machine to travel in time, studying the past is enough! During her Doctoral Studies, she discovered her interdisciplinary background provided a richer perspective to her efforts to understand the past. She published a second book; Trade in Wartime: The Business Correspondence of an Ottoman Muslim Merchant Family, in 2016. Her book sold more than 70 copies, which can be considered a `best-seller`  in the field of History. She will celebrate twenty years of teaching in February 2018. She loves teaching only when it is interactive, otherwise, she feels like she is talking to herself and gets bored of her voice. She could not picture herself anywhere else than academia since her undergraduate studies but her vision of academia was mostly research and teaching, she had no idea that it involved administrative duties as well. She has been practicing these duties for 13 years at various levels and currently she is the Head of Department of Social Sciences  and Coordinator of Social and Political Sciences Program.

1. “Heritage at War in the Mediterranean Region” is a new interdisciplinary research carried out by the Urban Observatory within the Department of Contemporary Studies of Ifpo, with the support of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (2015-2017). The main objective of the research program is to assess themes and critical issues related with heritage specifically in times and zones of conflict, especially in terms of identity and power politics. The program is based on the partnership of six teams belonging to the AUF: in Bosnia (International University of Sarajevo, Programs of Social and Political Sciences and Cultural Studies), for the question of multi-ethnicity; in Turkey (Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes) with the question of minorities, but also the neo-Ottomanization of Istanbul; in Algeria (Ecole Polytechnique d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme) and the consequences of the « leaden years »» as well as the colonization; in Egypt (IRD- Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale) with those of the « Arab spring » (Cairo and Alexandria); and in Lebanon (Université Libanaise, Institut des Beaux-Arts) with the particularly visible consequences of the civil war in Beirut. Examples in Palestine (as concerns territorial conflict) will also be treated through the participation of an Italian researcher (Politecnico, Milano). The research program will result in significant contributions to the field through a workshop in Sarajevo (June 2015), a workshop in Istanbul (2016) and a symposium in Beirut (2017) with a publication to follow, in addition to support for young researchers’ works. Senior Assistant Lejla Dizdarevic affiliated with the Faculty of Business and Administration at the International University of Sarajevo received the 2016 grant for her work titled “Heritage as reminder of war; Sarajevo tour” and Senior Assistant Nerkez Opacin is the 2017 candidate for the grant. (For a short video of the brief description of the project by Assist. Prof. Dr. Aliye F. Mataracı and young researchers affiliated with the project, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_U3aCpH1s).

2. Cooperation Agreement: World Social Capital Monitor was signed between Dr. Alexander Dill, on behalf of the Director of the Basel Institute of Commons and Economics and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aliye F. Mataraci, Head of Social Sciences Department and Coordinator of Social and Political Sciences Program, on behalf of the International University of Sarajevo (IUS) on May 17, 2018. Through this cooperation agreement, both parties agree to establish an agenda of cooperation aiming to implement joint-initiatives with a specific focus on the World Social Capital Monitor, which is a worldwide open access Social Capital Survey for citizens and the property of Basel Institute of Commons and Economics. The World Social Capital Monitor is a partnership project within the United Nations` Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). Based on this agreement, IUS will contribute to conducting the semi-annual Social Capital Monitor of Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the Basel Institute of Commons and Economics. All data entries will be collected in the online databank through the portal of the World Social Capital Monitor: http://trustyourplace.com/. The data will be the property of Basel Institute of Commons and Economics and IUS will receive the survey results in Excel format and is entitled to use and publish the results for academic purposes. The duration of the cooperation is five years and ten semi-annual surveys will be conducted in this period.

3. Göç Eğitim Programı Project: Project application under the Erasmus+ programme.

Trade in Wartime: The Business Correspondence of an Ottoman Muslim Merchant Family, Istanbul: Libra Yayınevi, 2016.

Trade Letters as Instances of Economy, Ideology and Subjectivity, Istanbul: Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Center, 2005

“(Identity) Politics & the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina”, the Third Workshop of the “Heritage at War in the Mediterranean Region” project organized by Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes (IFEA) in Beirut, 29-30 June, 2017, forthcoming 2019.

“Soliman Second, ou Les Trois Sultanes: Manifestation of Eighteenth-Century French Interest in the Ottomans.” In Culture and Diplomacy: Ambassadors as Cultural Actors in the Ottoman – European Relations from 16th to 19th Century, Vienna: Hollitzer Verlag, forthcoming 2019.

“Remembering the Battle of Kosovo (1389).” In Recent Developments in Arts, eds. by Zbigniew Bialas, Hasan Aslan, Mehmet Ali Icbay, Hasan Arslan, 183-187. International Association of Social Science, 2017. ISBN 978-83-943963-6-7 (E-book) / ISBN 978-83- 943963-6-7 (Print)

“Bosnia-Herzegovina during the Balkan Wars and World War I”, Bosnia and Herzegovina: Society, Law and Politics, 2016.

“Trading in the Shadow of Wars in a Doomed Empire.” In War and Collapse: World War I and the Ottoman State, edited by M. Hakan Yavuz with Feroz Ahmad,  Utah series in Middle East studies. Utah: University of Utah Press, 2016.

“From Anatolia to Manchester via Istanbul: The Complex Nature of an Ottoman Commercial Network on the Eve of World War I”, Socrates Petmezas, Gelina Harlaftis, Andreas Lyberatos, Katerina Papakonstantinou (eds.), New Perspectives in Theory and Empirical Research. Proceedings of the International Conference of Economic and Social History, Rethymno 10-13 December 2008. Publications of the Philosophical Scholl of the University of Crete – Alexandria Publications, Athens 2012, 481 p. (in Greek and English), available online: http://hdoisto.gr/en/activities/eeoi-conferences-archive/2008-conference.

"Dışarıdaki Chaplin", Dışarıda Kalanlar / Bırakılanlar (Outsiders), ed. Aliye F. Mataracı, Istanbul: Bağlam Yayınları, 2001.

"Fatma Aliye Hanım’s Contributions to History Writing.” International Relations and Diplomacy, August 2016, Vol. 4, No. 8, 502-507. (doi: 10.17265/2328-2134/2016.08.003) (available online as well: http://www.davidpublisher.org/Home/Journal/IRD)

“A Comparative History of Commercial Correspondence: European and Ottoman Practices”, Journal of Turkish Literature, Issue 8, Bilkent University Center for Turkish Literature, pp. 67-95, 2011.

“Consuming a Memorial Site: the Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Genocide against Bosniaks in ‘UN Safe Haven’ Srebrenica.” In PICS2018 – Political Communication in Theory and Practice: Non-Western Approaches, 405-418, 2018. ISBN: 978-975-8254-77-4