Ediz Hazir, M. A.

Joint PhD Researcher in Modern History at the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and at the Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen

Ediz Hazir is a joint PhD candidate in Modern History at Charles University in Prague (Institute of International Studies) and the University of Groningen (Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society). He holds an M.A. in Southeast European Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Oneonta. His doctoral dissertation, Religious Diplomacy between Paris, Rome, and Istanbul: The Assumptionist Congregation and its Mission d’Orient (1863–1914), examines the role of French Catholic missionaries in shaping religious diplomacy among the Holy See, France, and the Ottoman Empire. His research draws on archival work in the Vatican, Italy, France, Turkey, and Greece. His research has been supported by a number of competitive fellowships and research scholarships, including the IVOC Fellowship at Radboud University, the Netherlands Institute in Athens Fellowship, the Netherlands Institute in Turkey Fellowship, PhD Scholarships from the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR), the Barrande Fellowship from the French Embassy in Prague, and the Czech Ministry of Education.

Statement of interest:

My research explores the intersection of religion, diplomacy, and imperial politics in the late Ottoman Empire, focusing on French Catholic missions and their entanglements with the Holy See, France, and the Ottoman Empire. I am particularly interested in how missionaries served as religious actors, cultural intermediaries, and political agents amid competing imperial and ecclesiastical interests. More broadly, my work examines transnational Catholicism, missionary mobility, religious diplomacy, and the interactions between European powers and religious communities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Selected Publications:

• Hazir, Ediz. “Women on a Mission: The Oblates of the Assumption and the Transformation of Catholic Outreach in the Ottoman Balkans.” Journal of Church and State 68, no. 1 (2026): 1–33.
• Hazir, Ediz. “Politico-religious Imperialism: The Protectorate of the Roman Catholics and Holy Places in the Ottoman Empire.” Journal of Religious Minorities under Muslim Rule 3, no. 2 (2025): 167–192.
• Hazir, Ediz. “Religious Alliances and Imperial Ambitions: The Jesuit Mission to Little Armenia (1881).” Transformation 42, no. 3 (2025): 205–223. DOI: 10.1177/02653788241305991.
• Hazir, Ediz. “Bridging Faiths and Empires: The Assumptionists and the Mission d’Orient (1863–1923).” Religions 14, no. 9 (2023): 1183.
• Hazir, Ediz. “Religious Belonging and Multinational Encounters in ‘Infidel Izmir’: Past and Present.” Church History and Religious Culture 102, no. 1 (2022): 83–109.