Prof. Dr. İsenbike Togan

Prof. Dr. İsenbike Togan was born in Istanbul in 1940. She graduated from the Department of History in the Faculty of Letters at Istanbul University in 1964. Between 1964 and 1966, she studied Chinese language and studied in the  master’s program  at National Taiwan University in Taiwan. In 1967-1968, she worked as a lecturer at Istanbul University, and started her doctoral degree in the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography at Ankara University. Togan then went to the US to complete her doctoral degree in East Asian languages and Civilizations at Harvard University with a Fulbright scholarship. After returning to Turkey, she taught at Hacettepe University between 1974 and 1978. During teaching at Middle East Technical University between 1978 and 1984, she received a fellowship, MEA Awards (Middle Eastern Award) and went to Sudan for her research (1980-1982). In 1984, she joined the newly founded  Department of History at Middle East Technical University. In 1985-1987, Togan researched at Harvard University the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She taught at Wellesley University and Tufts University between 1987 and 1989. In 1989, she became a fellow at the Center for the Study of Islamic Societies and Civilizations at Washington University in St. Louis. She taught History of Central Asia, Middle East, and China at the History Department of Washington University until 1992.

Togan has participated in the UNESCO Silk Road expeditions of 1990 and 1991, and conferences related to UNESCO Silk Roads. She returned to Turkey in 1992 and continued teaching at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. In 1995, she became a professor. In 1999, Togan received a book prize by METU Development Foundation. In the next year, she was awarded METU Award for Academic Achievement. In 2001, Prof. Togan received Academy of Sciences of Turkey (TUBA) Award in Social Sciences. She is a member of the Academic Council of the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations (IISNC) in Ulaanbaatar.

In 2007 she retired from the Middle East Technical University. The same year she was elected as a principal member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA).  Since 2010 she is a honorary member of TUBA. In 2009 she became TUBA’s representative at Union of International Academies (UIA/UAI). Serving at the Standing Committee (Bureau) between 2012-2015, she became a member of  Board member of CIPSH/ICPHS (International Council for Philosophy and Human Sciences) in   2011.

Selected publications:
"Ottoman History by Inner Asian Norms" in The Journal of Peasant Studies 18, (1991), pp. 185-210.
"Islam in a Changing Society: The Khojas of Eastern Turkestan" in Muslims in Central Asia, Jo-Ann Gross (ed.), (Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 134-148.
"Uluğ Bey Zamanında Yasa ve Şeriat Tartışmaları" in Tarih Çevresi 10 (1994), pp.9-16.
Flexibility and Limitation in Steppe Formations: The Kerait Khanate and Chinggis Khan (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
"Fortunate Occasion to Salvation" in Culture, Society and Politics in Central Asia, N. N. Vohra (ed.), (New Delhi: India International Center, 1999), pp. 39-48.
"Inner Asian Muslim Merchants at the Closing of the Silk Road (17th Century)" in The Silk Roads. Highways of Culture and Commerce, Vadime Elisseeff (ed.), (Paris: Unesco Publishing, 2000), pp.247-263.
"As Culture Evolves into Religion: Pre-Islamic Notions of Cosmology and Orientation" in Central Asian Islam in Collection of Materials. Unesco International Forum “Culture and Religion in Central Asia",   (National Commission of the Kyrghyz Republic for Unesco, 2001), pp. 213-243.
"Sosyal Bilimlerde Yöntem Sorunları ve Geçerlilik: Makro Düzeyde Sorgulamadıklarımız Üzerine Düşünceler" in İlhan Tekeli için Armağan Yazılar, Selim İlkin, Orhan Silier, Murat Güvenç (ed.), (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2004), pp. 277-296.
Çin Kaynaklarında Türkler: Eski T′ang Tarihi (Chiu T′ang-shu) 194a: “Türkler” Bölümü, Açıklamalı Metin Neşri (Ankara: TTK, 2006).
"The Qongrat in History" in History and Historiography of Post-Mongol Central Asia and the Middle East. Studies in Honor of John E. Woods, Judith Pfeifer and Sholeh A. Quinn (ed.), (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2006), pp 61-83.
"Selçuklu ve Osmanlı Tarihi Bağlamında Cinsiyet Rollerini Farklı Algılama Yollarının İsim ve Unvanlara Yansıması" in Osmanlı′nın Peşinde Bir Yaşam, Suraiya Faroqhi′ye Armağan, Onur Yıldırım (ed.), (Ankara: İmge, 2008), pp. 45-96.

Reference: tuba.gov.tr, portal.unesco.org, biyografi.net