About
The Middle East/South Asia Studies Seminar is a network of graduate students from UC Davis, Stanford, and UC Berkeley who are working on research projects in and about the Middle East or South Asia. The seminar meets monthly (occasionally more frequently) at the home of Prof. Suad Joseph. Each month, two of the seminar members present their work. This has included book chapters and articles in progress, funding proposals, seminar papers, and other writing. In advance of the meeting, the two members send their work to all seminar members, who read the work prior to the meeting. Seminar members workshop the contributions of their colleagues during the evening seminar, taking turns to comment and raise questions. Members have varied over the years, coming from Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies, Education, Political Science in recent years. The variation in members' disciplinary training, geographical area of study, theoretical orientation, and stage in academic career helps those presenting work consider their projects from new angles. No units are attached to the seminar. Participation is by permission of Prof. Joseph. The ME/SA Seminar constitutes a unique academic community around the study of the Middle East and South Asia, where members benefit from the thoughts of a supportive, varied group of scholars. The seminar has been formative – even transformational – for many of its members.
The seminar was launched in 2002 by Prof. Suad Joseph and ran for twenty years. It included cumulatively well over fifty over the years. Prof. Joseph closed the seminar in June 2022.
Partial List of Participants
Shareefa Al-Adwani. Associate Professor. American University of Kuwait.
Jala W. Alarja. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Nicholas Ammar. Independent Business. Consulting.
Onur Arslan. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Tory Brykalski. Independent Consultant. Denver, CO.
Madeline Otis Campbell. Associate Professor, Worcester State University
Mehmet Ali Celik. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Yasmina Choueiri. Consultant. Beirut, Lebanon.
Stephen Cox. PhD UC Davis.
Britt Dawson. PhD candidate. UC Berkeley.
Nermin Adel Dessouky. Consultant. United Nations, Egypt
Tanzeen Rashed Doha. Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University.
Esmat El Halaby. Postdoctoral Fellow. UC Davis.
Samia Errazzouki. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Nina Farnia. Independent Researcher.
Rachel Feldman. Assistant Professor, Franklin and Marshall College.
Megan Fowler. Independent Researcher.
Sherine Hafez. Professor, University of California, Riverside
Zahra Ilhan. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Yasemin Ipek. Assistant Professor. George Mason University.
Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky. Assistant Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jaime Jackson. PhD. UC Davis.
Rajbir Singh Judge. Assistant Professor, California State University, Long Beach.
Beshara Kehdi. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Gabib Electra Kirk. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Zunaira Komal. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Jean-Michel Landry. Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Anthropology, McGill University
Elmira Louie. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Candace Lukasik. Assistant Professor. Mississippi State University.
Justin Skye Malachowski. Adjunct Professor. UC Davis.
Lena Meari. Assistant Professor, Birzeit University
Lamia Carolina Mezzour-Hodson. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Caroline McKusick. Associate Editor. Stanford University Press.
Soha Mohsen. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Nadine Naber. Professor. University of Illinois, Chicago.
Hakeem Naim. Assistant Professor. Northern Arizona University.
Ali Danis Neyzi. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Amira Othman. MA American University in Cairo.
Nahrain Rasho. PhD UC Davis.
Muneeza Rizvi. UC President’s Post Doctoral Fellow. UC Berkeley.
Karem Said. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Jihan Shaarawi. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Eveleen Sidana. PhD candidate. UC Davis.
Kevin Smith. Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Tracy Smith. Consultant
David Stenner. Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East and North African History, Christopher Newport University
Mehmet Fatih Tatari. PhD student, UC Davis. Anthropology
Zeina Zaatari. Director, Arab American Cultural Center, University of Illinois, Chicago
Razzan Zahra. Adjunct Professor University of Phoenix
Rim Zahra. Lecturer. Sonoma State University