Will Hanley

Associate Professor of History
Will Hanley

Contact Information

Phone
850 912 9143

I studied at the Universities of Saskatchewan, Toronto, Jordan, and Oxford before taking my doctorate at Princeton. I am currently working on a new book about Cairo and Istanbul as capitals of international law in a period roughly between 1870 and 1920.

publications

Hanley, Identifying with Nationality

My first book, Identifying with Nationality: Europeans, Ottomans, and Egyptians in Alexandria (Columbia University Press, 2017), traces the emergence of nationality as a social and legal category between 1880 and 1914.

My latest published essay is “Unlocking Islamic Names,” in Studying the Near and Middle East at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1935-2018, ed. Sabine Schmidtke (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2018), 276–83.

Find the rest of my scholarship, including downloadable PDFs, in Zenodo's repositories or via my ORCID profile.

Digital history

Legal History

Teaching

I teach courses on Egypt, the Middle East, digital history, and socio-legal history. In fall 2021, I will teach an introductory course in Middle East history (ASH 1044) and the Digital Microhistory Lab (IDS 2681). In spring 2022, I will teach Middle East Research (ASH 3230) and Legal history of the Middle East (ASH 3930). Syllabi for previous courses are here.

Language sessions

Past semesters: Schedule and Readings 

More information

Research Interests

Middle East, Legal History, Digital Humanities

Books

Identifying with Nationality: Europeans, Ottomans, and Egyptians in Alexandria

Nationality is the most important legal mechanism sorting and classifying the world's population today.