Ella Fratantuono, Ph.D.
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Ella Fratantuono, Ph.D. places the Ottoman experience within a global history of migration management and sheds light on how six decades of governing migration contributed to the infrastructures and ideology essential to genocide and mass displacement in the empire’s last decade. By applying the term ‘muhacir’ (migrant) to the millions of people entering the Ottoman Empire across a 60-year period (1850–1910), its administrators influenced public perception of the influx of people fleeing from oppression, violence and war. Ella Fratantuono considers those questions by placing the governance of migrants at the center of Ottoman state-building across a 60-year period (1850–1910).
How do terms used to describe migration change over time? How do those changes reflect possibilities of inclusion and exclusion? These are questions that were prevalent then, and are prevalent now in the face of worldwide immigration crises and constantly changing policies. Fratantuono pulls on the thread of language to explore how it can be used for both persecution and resistance.
Ella Fratantuono, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research and teaching focus on the Ottoman Empire, the Modern Middle East, migration, refugees, and genocide. She published her first monograph, Governing Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire with Edinburgh University Press in 2024. More recently she has begun to explore histories of translation dictionaries and English-language teaching in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey. Fratantuono is a co-editor of Mashriq & Mahjar: Journal of Middle East and North African Migration Studies. Her writing has appeared in the Journal of Genocide Research, History Compass, and Border Criminologies.
Additional Research
The author welcomes questions and comments about the topic and, although it is not necessary to read anything before the event, we refer you to additional research for more in-depth coverage:
Ella Fratantuono, Governing Migration in the Late Ottoman Empire (Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press, 2024).
Ella Fratantuono and Lucia Carminati, “Introduction: Children and Youth on the Move in Middle East and North African History,” Mashriq & Mahjar, 11, no. 2 (2024): 1-11.
Ella Fratantuono and Alyssa Martin, “Moving Subjects: Directions and Methodological Challenges in the Historical Study of Migrant Children and Youth.” History Compass e12792, 2023.
“Useful Refugees in Ottoman and Turkish Politics,” Border Criminologies, 25 May 2023.
“Producing Ottomans: Internal Colonization and Social Engineering in Ottoman Immigrant Settlement.” Journal of Genocide Research 21, no. 1 (2019): 1-24.additional research to come
Event Facts, Parking and Accessibility
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Time: 5:15 p.m., with a light reception at 4:15 p.m.
Location: J. Murrey Atkins Library, Halton Room
9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223
Please note the event is on Wednesday in 2025-2026
Open to the public at no charge
Parking: pats.charlotte.edu; The two closest parking locations are the Cone Deck and the Union Deck adjacent to the Popp Martin Student Union. (Look for arrows on the map.) Please read about the library’s accessibility support and contact chess-events@charlotte.edu if you have an accessibility issue directly related to Personally Speaking.
Now in its 16th Season, the Personally Speaking published-expert series highlights the recent research findings of our talented faculty. Presenters have each been selected by a committee of their peers to represent a sampling of the broad interdisciplinary work being conducted within the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences. Presenters also have a knack for sharing their personal inspirations in a way that thoroughly engages their audiences—who are invited to reciprocate after the presentation. In this way, the College aims to build new connections between our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the Charlotte community. The series is a partnership of the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences with J. Murrey Atkins Library. Presentations may be recorded, but are usually not livestreamed.
