Seçil Yilmaz is an Assistant Professor of History and Core Faculty at Penn GSWS. Yilmaz specializes in the social and political history of the Ottoman Empire and modern Middle East with a focus on medicine, science, and sexuality. Her research concentrates on the social and political implications of body, sexuality and venereal diseases in the late Ottoman Empire by tracing the questions of empire, colonialism, and modern governance. She is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Biopolitical Empire: Syphilis, Medicine, and Sex in the Late Ottoman World.  Her other projects include research on religion, history of emotions, and contagious diseases as well as history of reproductive health technologies and humanitarianism. Yilmaz is the recipient of the Middle East Studies Association’s Malcom H. Kerr Best Dissertation Award. Her publications have appeared in the journals including JMEWS, BHM and in edited collections such as The Routledge Companion to Sexuality and Colonialism. She is the co-curator of the podcast series on Women, Gender, and Sex in the Ottoman World at Ottoman History Podcast.