The National Mind

Deniz T. Kılınçoğlu is an interdisciplinary historian of ideas and narratives, working at the intersection of intellectual history, nationalism studies, and the digital humanities. His early research explored the intercultural circulation of economic ideas, focusing on how new concepts and values shaped social transformation in the late Ottoman Empire. Over time, his work has shifted toward the cognitive and emotional dimensions of nationalism, examining how national narratives shape minds, memories, and modes of belonging.
Deniz is currently a researcher at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin.
Alongside his research, he teaches AI-assisted humanities courses at Freie Universität Berlin, where he experiments with new ways of learning, reading, and interpretation in the age of increasing human–machine interaction.
His work reflects a consilient approach—bringing together the interpretive depth of the humanities, the analytical tools of the social sciences, and insights from cognitive science and digital technologies to better understand how knowledge, identity, and meaning are produced.

Positions

2024-Present: Lecturer, Global History MA Program, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

2023-Present: Researcher, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

2021–2022: Researcher, The Moritz Stern Institute, University of Göttingen

2017-2021: Research Fellow, The Göttingen Institute for Advanced Study, University of Göttingen

2012–2017: Assistant Professor, Middle East Technical University-Northern Cyprus Campus

2006–2012: Predoctoral Fellow and Teaching Assistant, Princeton University

Education

2012: Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

2009: M.A. in Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University

2005: M.S. in Economics, Middle East Technical University

2003: B.S. in Economics,Middle East Technical University

Select Representative Publications

Books

2024: The National Mind: Emotion, Cognition, and Nationalism. Palgrave Macmillan.

2018: İslâm, İktisat, Ordu ve Reform: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda İlk İktisat Eseri ve Tarihsel Bağlamı (Islam, Economics, Army, and Reform: The First Economic Treatise in the Ottoman Empire and its Historical Context). Istanbul Bilgi University Press.

2015: Economics and Capitalism in the Ottoman Empire. Routledge

Edited Volumes

2016: John Maynard Keynes… Yine Yeniden (John Maynard Keynes… Again and Anew). Co-edited with Emre Özçelik. İstanbul: İletişim.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

2023“Milli İktisat’ın 19. Yüzyıldaki Kökleri” (“The Roots of the ‘National Economy’ in the 19th Century”). In Sonrası Kalır: Milli İktisat, İktisadi Düşünce ve İktisat Tarihi (The Rest Remains: National Economy, Economic Thought, and Economic History), eds. S. Ağır and A. Y. Kaya. Imge, pp. 55–92.
2022“The Reshuffling of Middle Eastern Identities in the Age of Nationalism: Insights from 19th-Century Travelogues.” In On the Way into the Unknown? Comparative Perspectives on the ‘Orient‘ in (Early) Modern Travelogues, eds. D. Gruber and A. Strohmeyer. De Gruyter, pp. 365–383.
2020“Changing Reality through Fiction: A Cognitive Approach to Late Ottoman Literature.” Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 7 (1): 205–226.
2019“The Dawn of Ottoman Popular Political Economy: The Turkish Translations of Otto Hübner’s Der kleine Volkswirth.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought 41 (3), pp. 351–367.
2018“İbn Haldun: Sistem Kuran Düşünür” (Ibn Khaldun: System Builder). In İktisat Sosyolojisi (Economic Sociology), eds. A. A. Eren and E. Kırmızıaltın. Heretik, pp. 41–81.
2017“Studying Economics as War Effort: The First Economic Treatise in the Ottoman Empire and its Militaristic Motivations.” In War in the History of Economic Thought: Economists and the Question of War, eds. Y. Ikeda and A. Rosselli. Routledge, pp. 78–99.
2017“İktisadi Düşünce Tarihi Kaynağı Olarak Edebiyat: Geç Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’ndan Üç Örnek” (“Literature as a Source for the History of Economic Thought: Three Examples from the Late Ottoman Empire”). In İktisat ve Diğer Bilimler (Economics and Other Disciplines), eds. Ç. Boz, K. Öğüt, and A. D. Bozkurt. İletişim, pp. 231–266.
2017“Islamic Economics in the Late Ottoman Empire: Menâpirzâde Nuri Bey’s Mebâhis-i İlm-i Servet.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 24 (3), pp. 528–554.