People

NICHOLAS GLASTONBURY

• Research Interests: Nationalism, Turkey, Kurdistan, Political Ecology, Social Movements, Gender and Sexuality, Violence, Affect
• Undergraduate: BA, New York Uniersity
• Languages: Turkish, Kurdish, German
• Contact: nglastonbury@gradcenter.cuny.edu

SHIMA HOUSHYAR

• Research Interests: Anthropology of Time and Space. Anthropology of Infrastructure. Semiotics. Iran.
• Undergraduate: BA: University of Washington – Political Science and French
• Other: MA: New York University – Near Eastern Studies
• Languages: Persian, French, Arabic
• Contact: shoushyar@gradcenter.cuny.edu

OMNIA KHALIL

• Research Interests: Urban Anthropology – Urban poor – Self-Built housing – Slums – Violence – Neolibralism – Labor- Space – Social movements
• Undergraduate: Bsc, Architecture Department, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University
• Other: MA, anthropology department, American University in Cairo
• Languages: Arabic, English
• Contact: okhalil@gradcenter.cuny.edu

STEPHANIE LOVE

• Research Interests: Heteroglossia, education, immigration, North Africa, literature, literacy
• Undergraduate: University of Washington
• Other: MA in Education, University of Washington
• Languages: Italian, French, Arabic, some Spanish and some Berber
• Contact: slove@gradcenter.cuny.edu

DEREK LUDOVICI

• Research Interests: Economic Anthropology, Labor Movements, Informal Economy, Egypt
• Undergraduate: BA in Sociology and Middle Eastern Studies. Rutgers University
• Other: MA from the American University in Cairo
• Languages: Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Spoken Arabic
• Contact: dludovici@gradcenter.cuny.edu

YASEMIN OZER

• Research Interests: Turkish-Syrian border, refugees, displacement, gender, feminist theory, rural communities, development discourse
• Undergraduate: BA in Political Science, Vassar College
• Other: MA in Gender and Women’s Studies in the MENA, American University in Cairo
• Languages: Arabic, English, Turkish
• Contact: yaseminoze@gmail.com

AMIR REICHER

• Research Interests: Post-Colonial studies, Environmentalism, Middle-East, The Israeli settlers movement
• Undergraduate: BA in History and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University
• Languages: Hebrew
• Contact: amirreicheratir@yahoo.com

CHINA SAJADIAN

• Research Interests: The Levant, labor, critical agrarian studies, migration, political economy, gender
• Undergraduate: BA in Government, Smith College
• Other: MA in Anthropology, Columbia University
• Languages: Arabic, French
• Contact: csajadian@gmail.com

ALEXANDRA SCHINDLER

• Research Interests: cultural heritage, visual art, Egypt, borders, migration, and gender
• Undergraduate: Dartmouth College (Middle East Studies)
• Other: American University in Cairo (MA in Gender Studies)
• Languages: Arabic, French
• Contact: alex.k.schindler@gmail.com

CIHAN TEKAY

• Research Interests: Women, gender, labor, history, social movements in Turkey and ME
• Undergraduate: BA, Art History and Cultural Studies, Hampshire College, MA
• Other: MA, Sociology, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey
• Languages: Turkish, French, German
• Contact: ctekay@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Middle Eastern Political/Prison Literature, Diaspora literature
• Undergraduate: Lebanese University, BA in English Literature, Master of Education in Teaching Second Languages
• Contact: kal_hilli@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Cultural History of Palestine, Resistance Literature, Prison Literature, Poetics, Translation, Diaspora, Literary History and Theory
• Other: MA in English (Brooklyn, CUNY) and MA in Middle Eastern Studies (GC, CUNY)
• Languages: Turkish, Spanish

• Research Interests: History of crime and criminology in 20th century Egypt; history of childhood; missionaries, modernity and colonialism
• Undergraduate: B.A. in Political Science, Cairo University
• Other: M.A. Arab Studies Georgetown University
• Languages: Arabic, English
• Contact: m.saied83@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Arab-American Literature, Ameen Rihani and The Book of Khalid (1911), U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East, Ethnic Politics and Immigration in New York City (Little Syria), Historical Memory and the World Trade Center attacks
• Undergraduate: Harvard University, BA (Government)
• Other: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (Syracuse University), MA (International Relations)
• Languages: German, Portuguese, Arabic
• Contact: tdfine@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Late Ottoman history, Ottoman healthcare systems during WWI, Medical history, Social and political history of the Middle East
• Undergraduate: History, American University of Beirut (AUB)
• Other: MA in History, American University of Beirut (AUB)
• Languages: Arabic, Armenian, Turkish, Ottoman Turkish ( reading and writing ), French (reading)
• Contact: hkestenian@gradcenter.cuny.edu & hratch.ke@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Modern Middle East, post-colonialism, state formation, social history, security/intelligence organizations
• Undergraduate: US Military Academy, BS in Political Science
• Other: MA History, University of Utah
• Languages: Arabic
• Contact: cj.kirkpatrick00@outlook.com

• Research Interests: 18th and 19th century Ottoman history, history of performing arts, and gender
• Undergraduate: Bogazici University, B.A. in History
• Other: Bogazici University, M.A. in History.
• Languages: Turkish, French, Ottoman Turkish
• Contact: melissulos@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Historical linguistics, contact linguistics, phonology, phonemic inventories, Turkic and Iranic languages
• Undergraduate: Brooklyn College (CUNY)
• Other: Kurmanji Teacher for Kurdish Language Study Circle (NYC)
• Languages: English, Turkish, Kurdish
• Contact: dbarry@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Arab Classical Music
• Undergraduate: New York University
• Languages: Arabic
• Contact: insia.malik@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Iranian Classical Music, Computational Musicology, Music Information Retrieval (MIR), Music Pattern Recognition, Gender and Sexuality in the Middle East
• Undergraduate: University of Tehran
• Other: PhD in Mathematics, Northeastern University
• Languages: Persian, German
• Contact: epideh.shafiee@gmail.com

• Research Interests: Popular Music (in Turkey), Modernism, Sound Aesthetics, Authenticity, Music and Social Engineering, Gender in the Mediterranean
• Undergraduate: Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir
• Other: Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir
• Contact: onur_sonmez@hotmail.com

• Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Political Theory, LGBTQ Studies, Gender Studies, Islam, Hate Crimes, Social Movements and Pros
• Undergraduate: Political Science (Bogazici University)
• Languages: Turkish, English, Spanish
• Contact: sumru.atuk@gmail.com

• Research Interests: International Political Economy of energy markets in the Middle East and Southeast AsiaOrganizations
• Undergraduate: University of Maryland (History and Political Science), MA University of Chicago (Political Science)
• Other: University of Haifa (Peace studies)
• Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi
• Contact: sratner@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Political Theory, Post-Colonial Studies, Political Economy, The Kurdish Movement, Islamic Charity Organizations
• Undergraduate: University of North Carolina, Asheville (Philosophy & Classics)
• Other: The Graduate Center, CUNY (Middle Eastern Studies)
• Languages: Arabic, Turkish
• Contact: dschafer@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Population studies, aging, family, social policy, inequality, retirement, social interactions
• Undergraduate: BA in Sociology, Galatasaray University, Istanbul, Turkey
• Other: MA in Health, Population and Social Policy, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France
• Languages: Turkish, French
• Contact: dbasaran_sahin@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Arab Americans, Immigration, Race and Ethnicity, Middle Eastern Politics
• Undergraduate: University of Michigan-Dearbon
• Languages: Arabic
• Contact: rkaram@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Research Interests: Bilingual Education, Multicultural Education, Culture, Race, and Ethnicity
• Undergraduate: Early Childhood Education & Psychological Counseling at Bogazici University
• Other: Educational leadership and Administration, MED at Boston College
• Languages: Kurdish, Turkish
• Contact: demetarpacik@gmail.com

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Petroleum, Health, and Power: The Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Colonial Dimensions of Company Medicine in Iran, 1902–1931”
• Contact: aazimi@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Spirit of Progress: Islamic Education, Development, and Modernity in Zanzibar”
• Contact: cbolton@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Politics of Feminist Citizenship: Violence, Law, and Affect in Post-Revolution Tunisia”
• Contact: ogalal@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Cultivation, Conflict, and Consumption: Food Systems in Syria, 1920–1946”
• Contact: spekow@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Anticipating Revolution: The Lebanese Left and the Civil War”
• Contact: jrandall@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Politics of “Dignity” and the Tunisian Truth Commission: Keywords, Violence, Human Rights”
• Contact: dsheet@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Infrastructure of Politics: Participatory Urbanism, Professional Strategies, and the Production of the Built Environment in Post-Revolution Cairo”
• Contact: cpanetta@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Building Baghdad: The Construction of Urban Space in Iraq, 1921–1963”
• Contact: aalger@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Sedimenting Territory: A Political Geology of Oil, Earth, and Spatial Politics in Turkey”
• Contact:  https://zeynep-oguz.com/

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Disorderly Histories: An Anthropology of Decolonization in Western Sahara”
• Contact:  drury.mark@gmail.com

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Mobility, Colonialism, and Political Horizons: Tunisians around the First World War, 1911-1925”
• Contact: cchris.rominger@unf.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Liberal Translations: Secular Concepts, Law, and Religion in Colonial Egypt”
• Contact: jculang@gmail.com
•  

• Program: French
• Dissertation: “How to be a French Jew: Proust, Lazare, Glissant”
• Contact: tipol@aol.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “What is the Language of Islam?: Reform, Translation, and Secularism in Turkey”
• Contact: ydtelliel@gmail.com

• Program:History
• Dissertation: “The Sciences of the Soul: The Emergence of Psy-sciences and the Modern State in Turkey”
• Contact: ksoyubol@gc.cuny.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Love in the Time of Syphilis: Medicine and Sex in the Ottoman Empire, 1860-1922”
• Contact: secil.yilmaz@gmail.com

• Program: Theatre
• Dissertation: “Performing el Rap el ʿArabi 2005-2015: Feeling Politics amid Neoliberal Incursions in Ramallah, Amman, and Beirut”
• Contact: rayyaelz@gmail.com

• Program: Political Science
• Dissertation: “Policy Advocacy and the Performance of Muslim American Identity Contact”
• Contact: ecury@gc.cuny.edu

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Palestine is Throwing a Party and the Whole World is Invited: Privatization and State Building in the Contemporary West Bank”
• Contact:  kareem.rabie@compas.ox.ac.uk

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Contemporary Egyptian Therapeutic Landscapes Between Qur’anic Healing and Psychiatry”
• Contact: avinea@gradcenter.cuny.edu

• Program: Ethnomusicology
• Dissertation: “The Music and Multiple Identities of Kurdish Alevis from Turkey in Germany”
• Contact: ozanaksoy@gmail.com

• Program: Music
• Dissertation: “Arab Music Vocabulary in Syrian Contemporary Clarinet Chamber Works”
• Contact:kinanazmeh@yahoo.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “From Muslim Citizen to Christian Minority: Tolerance, Secularism, and Armenian Return Conversions in Turkey”
• Contact: ceren.ozgul@gmail.com

• Program: Psychology
• Dissertation: “An Analysis of Multi-Media Representations of Children’s Experience of War by Humanitarian Organizations”
• Contact: aidaizadpanah@yahoo.com

• Program: Theatre
• Dissertation: “The Social Lives of Playscripts: Nick of the Woods from Inkwell to Internet”
• Contact: katecwilson@yahoo.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Marital State: Personal Status Laws, Discourses of Reform and Secularity in Lebanon”
• Contact: arabillama@gmail.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Modernizing Charity, Remaking Islamic Law”
• Contact: moumtaz.1@osu.edu

• Program: Sociology

• Dissertation: “Articulated Values, Affecting Figures: Liberal Tolerance and the Racialization of Muslims/Arabs”
• Contact: Mitraellen@gmail.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “The Politics of Transition: Time, History and Justice in Postwar Lebanon”
• Contact: Shea_Mcmanus@ncsu.edu

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “A Race Against Time: Governing Femininity and Reproducing the Future in Revolutionary Iraq, 1945-63”
• Contact: spursley@nyu.edu

• Program: Sociology
• Dissertation: “Peasant Rebellions in the Age of Globalization: The EZLN in Mexico and the PKK in Turkey”
• Contact: mkucukozer@hotmail.com

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “American Missionaries, Armenian Community, and the Making of Proantism in the Ottoman Empire, 1820-1860”
• Contact: yetkinercemal@hotmail.com

• Program: History
• Dissertation: “Learning to Be Modern: American Missionary Colleges in Beirut and Kyoto 1860-1920”
• Contact: aleksandra.kobiljski@ehess.fr

• Program: Busines
• Dissertation: “Designing Social Production Models for Producer-Consumer Collaboration and Innovation in Digital Social Spaces”
• Contact: arakjir@newschool.edu

• Program: Theatre
• Dissertation: “The Powerful Voice of Women Dramatists in the Arab American Theatre”
• Contact: Daliadr@gmail.com

• Program: Anthropology
• Dissertation: “Breach of Trust: Customary/Commercial Documents and Practices of Private Law in an Egyptian Port”
• Contact: Christinehegel@gmail.com

• Program: Urban Education
• Dissertation: “Neglected in their Transitions: Second Generation Muslim Youth Search for Support in a Context of Islamaphobia”
• Contact: zaalm@mail.montclair.edu

• Program: Environmental Psychology   
• Dissertation: “Object of Legacy: Material Objects of Displaced People”
• Contact: zeynept7@gmail.com

• Program: Music
• Dissertation: “Songs of Honor, Voices of Shame: The Aita and the Moroccan Shikhat”
• Contact: amc25@columbia.edu