Recent PhDs in Mideast Studies
Over a seventy-five students have completed PhDs in Middle East studies in the past three years, in a wide range of departments spanning the humanities, social sciences, and professional schools:
Ramela Grigorian Abbamontian, Art History.
Nicolas Michael Morrissey, Art History.
Ali Douraghy, Biomedial Physics.
Nicolas Michael Kramer, Comparative Literature.
Man Ching Stella Chan, Economics.
Ana Maria Loboguerrero Rodriguez, Economics.
Laith A. Ulaby, Ethnomusicology.
Timothy Joseph Fargo, Geography.
John Joseph May, Jr., Geography.
Michael Edward Easterly, History.
Fangchun Li, History.
Andrea Rene Maestrejuan, History.
Roger Sangburm Nam, NELC.
Katja Isakovic Favretto, Political Science.
Tamura Dawn Howard, Political Science.
Drew Alan Linzer, Political Science.
Salah-Addin Hasan Aqtash, Nursing. Dissertation: Determinants of Health-Promoting Lifestyle Behaviors among Arab Immigrants from the Region of the Levant.
Ruth Barzilai-Lumbroso, History. Dissertation: Turkish Men, Ottoman Women: Popular Turkish Historians and the Writing of Ottoman Women’s History.
Begum Basdas, Geography. Dissertation: Cosmopolitanism in the City: Contested Claims to Bodies and Sexualities in Beyoglu-Istanbul.
Talar Chahinian, Comparative Literature. Dissertation: The Paris Attempt: Rearticulation of (National) Belonging and the Inscription of Aftermath Experience in French Armenian Literature between the Wars.
Sung-eun Choi, History. Dissertation: From Colonial Citizen to Postcolonial Repatriate: The Politics of National Belonging and the Integration of the French from Algeria after Decolonization.
Howard Lee Eissenstat, History. Dissertation: The Limits of Imagination: Debating the Nation and Constructing the State in Early Turkish Nationalism.
Alia Ezzeldin Ismail El Sandouby, Art History. Dissertation: The Ahl al-bayt in Cairo and Damascus: The Dynamics of Making Shrines for the Family of the Prophet.
Magdy Mounir El-Shammaa, History. Dissertation: Shadows of Contemporary Lives: Modernity, Culture, and National Identity in Egyptian Filmmaking.
Natalie Michaylova Khazaal, NELC. Dissertation: Sectarianism, Language, and Language Education in Lebanese Theater, Television, and Film.
Mustafa Kilinc, Economics. Dissertation: Financial Markets and Boom-Bust Cycles in Turkey.
Anthony Asa Lee, History. Dissertation: The Establishment of the Baha’I Faith in West Africa: The First Decade, 1952-1962.
Emad Mirmatahari, Comparative Literature. Dissertation: Islam and the Eastern African Novel: Revisiting Nation, Diaspora, Modernity.
Yoko Nishimura, Archaeology. Dissertation: North Mesopotamian Urban Space: A Reconstruction of Household Activities and City Layout at Titriş Höyük in the Third Millennium B.C.
Parisa Sekandari Popalzai, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: Seeking Knowledge from the Cradle to the Grave: An Exploratory Study of Islamic Preschools in Southern California.
Kent Fielding Schull, History. Dissertation: Penal Institutions, Nation-state Construction, and Modernity in the Late Ottoman Empire, 1908-1919.
Tülay Atak, Architecture. Dissertation: Byzantine Modern: Displacements of Modernism in Istanbul.
Yasmine Consuelo Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Hispanic Languages and Literatures. Dissertation: Mozarabic: Culture Contact, Language and Diglossia in Medieval Toldeo.
Ödül Bozkurt, Sociology. Dissertation: Transnationality at Work: High-Skilled Workers in Mobile Telecommunications Multinationals in Finlands, Sweden, and Turkey.
Keven Alexander Brown, NELC. Dissertation: Time, Perpetuity, and Eternity – Mir Dámád’s Theory of Perpetual Creation and the Trifold Division of Existence: An Analysis of Kitáb Al-Qabasát: The Book of Blazing Brands.
Jeffrey Callen, Ethnomusicology. Dissertation: French Fries in the Tagine: Re-imagining Moroccan Popular Music.
Robert Ray Duke, NELC. Dissertation: The Social Location of the Vision of Amram (4Q543-547).
Anver Munaver Emon, History. Dissertation: Natural Law and Natural Rights in Islamic Law: History and Theory.
Edgar Walter Francis IV, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: Islamic Symbols and Sufi Rituals for Protection and Healing: Religion and Magic in the Writings of Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni (d. 622/1225).
Cheryl Anne Goldstein, Comparative Literature. Dissertation: “We’ll Build in Sonnets”: The Construction of the Literary Persona in Early Modern Sonnets Composed in Hebrew, English, and Spanish.
Joy Land, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: Corresponding Lives: Women Educators of the Alliance Israelite Universelle School for Girls in the City of Tunis, 1882-1914.
George W. Maschke, NELC. Dissertation: Proverbial and Idiomatic Language in a Modern Persian Novel: A Contextual Analysis Based on Iraj Pezeshkzad’s Da’i Jan Napel’on.
Scott John McDonough, History. Dissertation: Power by Negotiation: Institutional Reform in the Fifth Century Sasanian Empire.
Guilnard Jean Moufarrej, Ethnomusicology. Dissertation: Music and the Ritual Death among the Maronite Christians in Lebanon.
Orit Stieglitz, Urban Planning. Dissertation: Special Spatial Needs? Development Planning and the Domestic Space: The Case of the Bedouin Women.
Margaret Gerard Trenchard-Smith, History. Dissertation: Perceptions of Unreason in the Byzantine Empire to the End of the First Millenium.
2005
Russell Cory Demolar Arnold, NELC. Dissertation: The Social Role of Liturgy in the Religion of the Qumran Community. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Claremont McKenna College.
Justin Cale Johnson, NELC. Dissertation: In the Eye of the Beholder: Quantificational, Pragmatic and Aspectual Features of the *Bi-verbal Prefix in Sumerian. Appointment: Research Associate, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of California, Los Angeles.
Amir Hosein Pourjavady, NELC. Dissertation: The Musical Codex of Amir Khan Gorji (c. 1108-1697). Appointment: Assistant Professor, University of Tehran.
Terrence Szink, NELC. Dissertation: A Computer-Aided Analysis of the Semetic of the Ebla Tablets. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Ancient Scripture, Brigham Young University.
Dalia Yasharpour, NELC. Dissertation: Elisa ben Semuel's Sahzadeh va Sufi: The Judeo-Persian Adaptation of the Buddha Biographies. Appointment: Adjunct Professor, Department of Modern Languages, Santa Monica College.
2004
Abdul-Muttaleb al-Ballam, Architecture. Dissertation: An Advanced Digital Solution for Representing Continuity in Urban Architectural Change: A Virtual Urban Architectural Evolution. Appointment: Teaching and research, Kuwait University.
Avner Ben Zaken, History. Dissertation: The Angelus Novus of Early Modern Science: The Past, the East and the Circulation of Post-Copernican Astronomy in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1560-1660. Appointment: Avner is conducting postgraduate research as a Junior Fellow (2004-06) in the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Jill Kushner Bishop, Anthropology. Dissertation: More than a Language, a Travel Agency: Ideology and Performance in the Israeli Judeo-Spanish Revitalization Movement.
Cigdem Atakuman Eissenstat, Archaeology. Dissertation: Ritualization of Settlement: Conditioning Factors of Spatial Congruity and Temporal Continuity during the Late Neolithic of Southeastern Anatolia. Appointment: Arkeoloji Muzesi, Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
Karen Gumberg, Comparative Literature. Dissertation: Poetics of Place: Unraveling Home and Exile in Jewish Literature from Israel and the United States. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Hebrew Literature in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin.
Frederick Mabie, NELC. Dissertation: Ancient Near Eastern Scribes and the Mark(s) They Left: A Catalog and Analysis of Scribal Auxiliary Marks in the Amarna Corpus and in the Cuneiform Alphabet Texts of Ugarit and Ras Ibn Hani. Appointment: Associate Professor of Bible Exposition, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.
Maged Mikhail, History, 2004. Dissertation: Egypt from Late Antiquity to Early Islam: Copts, Melkites and Muslims Shaping a New Society. Maged received the Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the Humanities, Honorable Mention, from the Middle East Studies Association. His dissertation advisor was Professor Michael Morony. Appointment: Assistant Professor of History, James Madison University.
Ofer Nur, History, 2004. Dissertation: Hashomer Hatzair Youth Movement, 1918-1924, from Eastern Galicia and Vienna to Palestine: A Cultural History.
Nahid Pirnazar, NELC. Dissertation: The Place of the Fifteenth-Century Judeo-Persian Religious Epic ’Emrani’s Fathnameh in Iranian Literary Traditions. Appointment: Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles.
David Simonowitz, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: On the Cutting Edges of Dhu'l-Fiqar: Authority and the Discourse of Architecture in the Musta`li-Tayyibi and Nizari Communities.
Julie Taylor, Political Science. Dissertation: Prophet Sharing: Strategic Interaction between Islamic Clerics and Middle Eastern Regimes. Appointment: Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University.
2003
Jeffrey Blutinger, History. Dissertation: Writing for the Masses: Heinrich Graetz, the Popularization of Jewish History, and the Reception of National Judaism. Appointment: Assistant Professor of History, California State University, Long Beach, and Assistant Director of the Jewish Studies Program.
Sandra Campbell, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: Telling Memories: The Zubayrids in Islamic Historical Memory. Appointment: Assistant Professor of History, San Diego State University.
Cynthia Skvorec Colburn, Art History. Dissertation: The Art of Interaction: Distance and Social Status in Prepalatial Crete. Appointment: Visiting Professor of Art History, Pepperdine University, Malibu.
Jacob Dahl, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Dissertation: The Ruling Family of Ur III Umma: A Prosopographical Analysis of a Provincial Elite Family in Southern Iraq ca. 2100-2000 BC. Appointment: Jacob was awarded a fellowship by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique for postgraduate research at the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
Robert Dowd, Political Science. Dissertation: Christianity, Islam and Political Culture: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa in Comparative Perspective. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame.
Roger Blythe Good, NELC. Dissertation: The Septuagint’s Translation of the Hebrew Verbal System in Chronicles.
Afshin Marashi, History. Dissertation: Nationalizing Iran: Culture, Power, and the State, 1870-1941. Appointment: Assistant Professor of History, California State University, Sacramento.
Kerry Muhlestein, NELC. Dissertation: Violence in the Service of Order: The Religious Framework for Sanctioned Killing in Ancient Egypt. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Religion and History, Brigham Young University, Hawaii.
Firoozeh Papan-Matin, NELC. Dissertation: Death, Vision and Self in `Ayn al-Qudat Hamadhani. Appointment: Assistant Professor of Persian Literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Washington.
Simon Payaslian, History. Dissertation: United States Policy toward the Armenian Question and the Armenian Genocide. Appointment: Endowed Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies, Clark University.
Alison Rice, French and Francophone Studies. Dissertation: Time Signatures: Contextualizing Contemporary Francophone Autobiographical Writing from the Maghreb.
Heidi Rutz, Islamic Studies. Dissertation: Orders from God? The Implications of Ethno-religious Discourse and Transnational Networks on Group Mobilization and Violence. Appointment: Professor of Strategy and Policy, US Naval War College.
Shobana Shankar, History. Dissertation: Children of the Mission in Kano Emirate: Conflicts of Conversion in Colonial Northern Nigeria, c. 1899-1953. Appointment: Term Assistant Professor, Barnard College.
Date Posted: 5/16/2005
