Erdem Sönmez is a historian of the modern Middle East, with research and teaching interests focusing on the intellectual, cultural, and political history of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ottoman Empire and Turkey. Beyond this temporal and spatial scope, he extensively engages with the theoretical and methodological aspects of historiography, specifically with the history of historical writing and thought. Sönmez received his Ph.D. in History from Bilkent University and holds master's and undergraduate degrees from Istanbul and Istanbul Technical universities, respectively. He also spent one year as a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University and held visiting positions at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London and Siena University in Italy.

Sönmez's work has appeared in various edited volumes and such journals as the Modern Intellectual History, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Turkish Historical Review, and Middle Eastern Studies, among others. Additionally, he has been invited to review books by a number of journals, including the American Historical Review, Journal of Cold War Studies, European History Quarterly, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Die Welt des Islams, and Turkish Studies. Sönmez has also authored two books in Turkish, entitled Ahmed Rıza: Bir Jön Türk Liderinin Siyasi-Entelektüel Portresi [Ahmed Rıza: An Intellectual and Political Portrait of a Young Turk Leader] and Annales Okulu ve Türkiye'de Tarihyazımı [The Annales and Turkish Historiography]. 

Selected Publications:

- "Clio between Revolution and Collapse: The Making of the Historical Discipline in the Late Ottoman Empire", Modern Intellectual History 21, no. 1 (2024): 81-102.

- "Historical Writing in the Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Empire: Expansion, Islamization, and Nationalization (1839-1908)", Turkish Historical Review 13, no. 1-2 (2022): 42-66.

- "A Past to be Forgotten? Writing Ottoman History in Early Republican Turkey", British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 48, no. 4 (2021): 753-769.

- "From 'Kanun-ı Kadim' (Ancient Law) to 'Umumun Kuvveti' (Force of People): Historical Context of the Ottoman Constitutionalism", Middle Eastern Studies 52, no. 1 (2016): 116-134.

- Ahmed Rıza: Bir Jön Türk Liderinin Siyasi-Entelektüel Portresi (İstanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yurt Yayınları, 2012).

- Annales Okulu ve Türkiye'de Tarihyazımı: Annales Okulunun Türkiye'deki Tarihyazımına Etkisi (Başlangıçtan 1980'e) (Ankara: Fol Kitap, 2022) (first edition, 2008).