Kaya Şahin earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in history from Sabancı University, and a B.A. in political science and international relations from Boğaziçi University. Before college, he attended the French-language Lycée de Galatasaray in Istanbul. He currently serves as vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. 

Before coming to OSU, Şahin was a member of Indiana University’s Department of History for more than a decade. At IU, he also held adjunct appointments in Central Eurasian Studies and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures and served as director of Renaissance Studies and Islamic Studies Programs. 

As a historian of the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period, Şahin has emphasized comparative, regional and global perspectives in his publications. He is the author of Empire and Power in the Reign of Süleyman: Narrating the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Empire and Peerless among Princes: The Life and Times of Sultan Süleyman. He published articles on apocalypticism, governance, early modern Orientalism, cross-cultural encounters, and ceremonies and rituals. He is currently working on a new book, provisionally entitled Empire, Ritual, Masculinity: Circumcision Celebrations for Ottoman Princes, 1457-1582.