Professor Özcan is known in the international community for his research on Colonial History, Ottoman Modern History and South Asian Muslims. He is a graduate of Ankara University Faculty of Theology and İstanbul University Faculty of Law. Özcan earned his Master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester in 1986. As a researcher of İSAM, Özcan gave lectures at the University of London SOAS in 1990 after completing his doctorate on British-Ottoman Relations in the Department of History. He served as the Chairman of İSAM between 1996 and 1999, became an associate professor in 1997 and earned the title of Professor in 2002. Professor Özcan wrote four books published in the field of recent Ottoman History and penned down many articles in different languages. His book entitled “Indian Muslims, the Ottomans and Britain 1877-1924” was published in 1997 by Brill Publishers, a world-leading international academic publishing house in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Professor Özcan served as the Head of the Department of History in the Faculty of Science and Letters at Sakarya University in 2003-2004. He exerted efforts as the founding rector of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University in 2007-2016. Professor Özcan currently is a Member of the Board of Trustees of May 29 University in İstanbul.