He focuses on the Middle East and Islamic history. He teaches courses on the history of the modern Middle East, history of Islamic Empires, and human rights in the Middle East. His recent publications include: The Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843-1914 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), Tunalı Hilmi Bey: Osmanlıdan Cumhuriyete Bir Aydın (Tunalı Hilmi Bey: An Intellectual Journey From the Empire to the Republic), Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2009, and “Bones of Contention: Corpse Traffic and Iranian-Ottoman Rivalry in Iraq,” Comparative Studies of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 30, 3, (2010): 512-532. He received his Ph.D. from New York University, M.A. from the University of Ankara, and B.A. from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara.