Theo Knights

Theo Knights is an MSt student in Oriental Studies. He previously received a BA in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (2018) and MA in Middle Eastern Studies (2021) from the University of Chicago. Theo's research for the MSt investigates the intellectual transition of Mustafa Suphi from Ottomanism and Turkism to communism as well as his rise as a minor player in the Russian Revolution. By exploring of continuities in Mustafa Suphi's thought between his Turkist and comminist periods, particularly with regards to themes of anti-imperialism and (Ottoman) federalism, Theo hopes to recover what Suphi understood as a common core of the ideologies of nationalism and communism, which are so often thought to be incompatible. More broadly, Theo is interested in how the Turkic press in the Caucasian, Crimean, and Volga-Ural peripheries bound the Ottoman and Russian Empires together and served as vectors for the transmission of revolutionary ideas.