Faculty
From a core of four scholars in 1957, the faculty corps involved in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at UCLA has grown to include more than 60 individuals across the humanities, social sciences and professional fields.
These faculty have mentored more than 1000 current and former graduate students, thereby assuring the growth and diversification of the field and the profession. As a collective, they have contributed significantly through their research and travel to deepening our knowledge base and our understanding of the Middle East and its people, both in the region and in diaspora.
Their accomplishments in the past five years include hundreds of publications on a variety of topics, from a concise history of the modern Middle East to works on aspects of Islamic law, Ottoman historiography, Arabic music, Ismaili legal doctrine, Persian philosophy, modern Iran, and the evolution of Biblical Hebrew. Three UCLA faculty have translated five volumes of al-Tabari’s History in the SUNY Press edition.
CNES faculty have excelled professionally as well, five having served as president of the Middle East Studies Association (including G.E. von Grunebaum, MESA’s honorary first president in 1966), while other faculty are active members of various MESA committees. Many have been recognized for their teaching and lifetime achievements, including Afaf Marsot and Nikki Keddie who received the MESA Mentorship Award in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
UCLA faculty took the lead in forming the California Middle East Social and Cultural History Association (CAL-MESCHA) and founding the UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law.
Affiliated Faculty
Anthropology
- Sondra Hale
Professor - Nancy Levine
Professor - Susan Slyomovics
Professor, Director, Center for Near Eastern Studies
Architecture and Urban Design
- Samuel Aroni
Professor Emeritus and Director, Special Academic Cooperative Projects
Art History
- Irene Bierman
Professor - Susan Downey
Professor - Saloni Mathur
Associate Professor - Steven Nelson
Associate Professor
History
- Edward A. Alpers
Professor & Department Chair - S. Scott Bartchy
Senior Lecturer, Director of Center for the Study of Religion - Ra'anan Boustan
Assistant Professor of Early Judaism and Ancient Mediterranean Religions - James Gelvin
Professor - Nile Green
Professor - Richard Hovannisian
Professor Emeritus - Nikki Keddie
Professor Emerita - Ghislaine Lydon
Associate Professor - Afaf Marsot
Professor Emerita - Michael Morony
Professor, Chair of Islamic Studies IDP - David Myers
Professor, Director of Center for Jewish Studies - Gabriel Piterberg
Professor - Claudia Rapp
Professor, Chair of Middle East and North African Studies IDP - Teofilo Ruiz
Professor - Sarah Stein
Professor
Comparative Literature
- Nouri Gana
Assistant Professor - Gil Zehava Hochberg
Assistant Professor - Francoise Lionnet
Professor - Aamir Mufti
Associate Professor
Economics
- Sule Ozler
Associate Professor
English
- Ali Behdad
Professor - Christine Chism
Associate Professor - Janet Hadda
Professor Emerita - Saree Makdisi
Professor
Ethnomusicology
- Munir Beken
Assistant Professor - Ali Jihad Racy
Professor - Hiromi Lorraine Sakata
Professor Emerita
Film and Television
- Teshome H. Gabriel
Professor
French and Francophone Studies
- Dominic Thomas
Professor, Department Chair
Law
- Khaled Abou El Fadl
Professor - Asli Bali
Acting Professor
Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
- Carol Bakhos
Associate Professor of Jewish Studies - Amin Banani
Professor Emeritus of Persian & History - Arnold Band
Professor Emeritus of Hebrew & Comparative Literature - Andras Bodrogligeti
Professor Emeritus of Turkic Languages - Ra'anan Boustan
Assistant Professor of Early Judaism and Ancient Mediterranean Religions - Giorgio Buccellati
Professor Emeritus of Assyriology, History & Archaeology - Aaron A. Burke
Assistant Professor of Archaeology of Ancient Israel & the Levant - Elizabeth Carter
Department Chair, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology - Michael D. Cooperson
Associate Professor of Arabic - S. Peter Cowe
Narekatsi Professor of Armenian Studies - Herbert A. Davidson
Professor Emeritus of Hebrew - Jacco Dieleman
Assistant Professor of Egyptology - Robert K. Englund
Professor of Assyriology & Sumerology - Nancy Ezer
Lecturer in Hebrew - Michael Fishbein
Lecturer Emeritus in Arabic - Altay Goyushov
Visiting Professor - Latifeh Hagigi
Lecturer in Persian - Lev Hakak
Professor of Hebrew - David G. Hirsch
Librarian & Assistant Adjunct Professor - Ralph Jaeckel
Lecturer Emeritus in Turkish - Anahid Keshishian
Lecturer in Armenian - Hagop Kouloujian
Lecturer in Armenian - Guliz Kuruoglu
Lecturer in Turkish - Nahid Pirnazar
Lecturer in Iranian Studies - Ismail K. Poonawala
Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures - Yona Sabar
Professor of Hebrew - William Schniedewind
Professor of Biblical Studies & Northwest Semitics - M. Rahim Shayegan
Assistant Professor - Susan Slyomovics
Professor, Director, Center for Near Eastern Studies - Willemina Wendrich
Associate Professor of Egyptian Archaeology & History - Hossein Ziai
Professor of Iranian & Islamic Studies
Political Science
- Leonard Binder
Distinguished Professor of Political Science - Michael L. Ross
Professor of Political Science, Director of Center for Southeast Asian Studies - Steven L. Spiegel
Professor, Political Science and Director, Center for Middle East Development
Public Health
- Osman Galal
Professor - Gail Harrison
Professor
Sociology
- Andreas Wimmer
Professor
Women's Studies
- Sondra Hale
Professor
World Arts and Cultures
- Allen F. Roberts
Professor
