Constantinople Woman's College: constructing gendered,religious, and political identities in an American institution in the Late Ottoman Empire

This article examines the ways in which the identity of a nineteenth-century American missionary college in Istanbul was constructed by key players in its development. Through analysis of published reports designed to create public perceptions about the institution, the article unearths deep divisions about the purpose of Constantinople College and tracks its changing identity following the political vicissitudes of the era. The article argues that college trustee Caroline Borden, president Mary Mills Patrick, and alumna Halidé Edib had their own motives for shaping and promoting an American Ottoman institution grounded in Protestant culture, American values, Ottoman cosmopolitanism, and a feminist international spirit.