Ron Sela :: Faculty
Associate Professor, Central Eurasian StudiesAssociate Professor, International Studies
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of History
Office: Goodbody Hall 141
Phone: (812) 856-7017
E-mail: rsela@indiana.edu
Education
Ph.D., Indiana University, 2004
Current Doctoral Students
Research Interests
History and historiography of Islamic Central Asia in the 16th-20th centuries; political and cultural self-representation in Central Asian sources, and Central Asia’s role in the history of the Islamic world
Courses Recently Taught
- Introduction to Central Asian History
- Central Asia under Russian Rule
- Ethnic History of Central Asia
- Sources for the Study of Central Asian History
- Travelers and Explorers in Central Asia
- Central Asia in the 19th Century
- Nations, States and Boundaries (for the Program in International Studies)
- Capstone Seminar (for the Program in International Studies)
Publication Highlights
The Legendary Biographies of Tamerlane: Islam and Heroic Apocrypha in Central Asia. Cambridge University Press (April, 2011).
Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009). Co-authored with Scott C. Levi.
Ritual and Authority in Central Asia: The Khan's Inauguration Ceremony. Papers on Inner Asia no. 37 (Bloomington: RIFIAS, 2003), 79 pp.
“Invoking the Russian Conquest of Khiva and the Massacre of the Yomut Turkmens: The Choices of a Central Asian Historian," Asiatische Studien/Etudes Asiatiques LX:2 (2006), pp. 459-477.
“The Heavenly Stone' (Kök Tash) of Samarqand: A Rebels' Narrative Transformed," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 17/1 (January 2007), pp. 21-32.
"A Different Reassessment of Tīmūr's Legacy in Central Asia," in Emir Timur ve Mirasi, ed. Abdulvahap Kara and Ömer İşbilir (Istanbul: Doğu Kütüphanesi, 2007), pp. 23-31.
Current Research Projects
- Turkic and Iranian Identities in Central Asia
- Travel Literature in Central Asia
- Urban space and nomadic rulers in Central Asia
