Career
He is a leading economic historian of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East and modern Turkey. He co-authored A History of Middle East Economies in the Twentieth Century (1999) with Harvard-based historian Roger Owen. A collection of his articles on the Ottoman economy recently appeared as Ottoman Economy and Its Institutions (Ashgate-Variorum, 2008).
His research interests include Turkish economic history since 1800, the Ottoman economy in the early modern era, and economic growth in the Balkans and the Middle East since 1800.
His last book published in Turkish in 2014 examines Turkey’s record of economic growth and institutional change during the last two centuries. He continues to work on the economic history of Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey, the Middle East and Europe.
Pamuk was born in Istanbul. After attending high school at Robert College, in Istanbul, Pamuk graduated from Yale University (1972) and obtained his Doctor of Philosophy. degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley (1978).
He has since taught at various universities in Turkey and the United States including Ankara, Pennsylvania, Villanova, Princeton, Michigan at Ann Arbor, Northwestern and beginning in 1994 at Bogaziçi (Bosphorus) University, Istanbul as Professor of Economics and Economic History.
Şevket Pamuk was Professor and Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science during 2008-2013. He is currently the President of the Asian Historical Economics Society. He is an editor of European Review of Economic History.
Pamuk is also the older brother of Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk.
Pamuk also has a younger half-sister Hümeyra Pamuk, who is a journalist.
