Arab World Studies Faculty
Director
Faculty
Atiaf Alwazir AUx Instructor & Advisor UEAS | First Year Advising
Atiaf (she/her/hers) is a multilingual educator, researcher and writer. She has experience in international education, research, and advocacy. She worked in six countries, Belgium, Egypt, France, Tuni…
Seraje Assi Adjunct Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Morad Elsana Adjunct Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Dr. Elsana is an adjunct professor at the American University. Prior, he served as a professor of Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, and International Humanitarian Law. Dr. Elsa…
Mustafa Gurbuz Adjunct Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Mustafa Gurbuz is a political sociologist whose research focuses on race/ethnic relations and social movements. His publications appeared in Sociological Inquiry, Sociological Forum, Middle East Criti…
Nabil HageAli Adjunct Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Abdallah Hendawy Adjunct Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Abdallah Hendawy, Ph.D., specializes in the study of mass mobilization and social movements with a particular focus on radicalization and violent insurgency in the Middle East. He has been actively en…
Judd King Adjunct Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Judd King currently teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and is affiliated with the Arab World Studies Program. His primary research interests are modern Islamic political movements, g…
Martyn Oliver Faculty Chair, AU Core CAS | Critical RGC Studies
Martyn was born and raised in southern Minnesota. In addition to Washington State and Boston, his studies also took him to Scotland, Lebanon, Austria, and Morocco. His work explores the construction o…
Elke Stockreiter Associate Professor CAS | History
Elke Stockreiter is a historian of modern Africa. Her research and teaching interests include the histories of colonialism, gender, race, and slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean World. Trained as a…
Affiliated Faculty
Mohammed Abu-Nimer Professor SIS | Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations
Mohammed Abu-Nimer is a full professor in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at American University and the Chair of the Said Abdul Aziz for Peace and Conflict Resolution. He prev…
Akbar Ahmed Distinguished Professor and Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies SIS | Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations
Boaz Atzili Professor SIS | Foreign Policy & Global Security
Dr. Boaz Atzili is a political scientist who researches and teaches international politics. His interest is in international security with an emphasis on the politics of borders, borderlands and terri…
Naima Hachad Associate Professor CAS | World Languages and Cultures
Dr. Hachad’s research focuses on issues of gender and sexuality, autobiography and testimony, and the representation and memorialization of violence in cultural productions of the Maghreb and the Cari…
Anders Hardig Senior Professorial Lecturer SIS | Politics, Governance & Economics
Dr. Anders C. Härdig is the Director of the Global Scholars Program, an accelerated BA program in SIS which gives students a cohort experience and incorporates study abroad programming. Dr. Härdig ser…
Shadi Mokhtari Assistant Professor SIS | Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations
Shadi Mokhtari teaches at the School of International Service at American University in Washington D.C., where she focuses on the politics of human rights, political change in the Middle East, and pol…
Erez Naaman Associate Professor CAS | World Languages and Cultures
Erez Naaman specializes in classical Arabic literature and culture. In addition, his research interests include the intellectual history of the premodern Islamic world. His scholarly work has focused …
Ghiyath Nakshbendi Senior Professorial Lecturer KSB | Finance/Real Estate
Professor Nakshbendi teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Alternative (Islamic) Finance, Microfinance & Financial Inclusion, Trade and Project Finance, Export-Import Management, International…
Mohamed Nimer Assistant Professor SPA | Finance & Personnel Administration
Dr. Nimer teaches International Affairs and Intercultural Understanding at the AU Global and Immersive Studies unit. He is author of The North American Muslim Resource Guide: Muslim Community Life in …
Pedram Partovi Associate Professor CAS | History
Pedram Partovi is a historian of the medieval and modern Muslim world. His current research focuses on the history of youth movements and their role in creating and disrupting the political order in I…
Kendra Salois Assistant Professor CAS | Performing Arts
Kendra Salois received the Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2013. Prior to joining the Department of Performing Arts at AU, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the …
Cathy Lisa Schneider Professor Emerita
Professor Schneider teaches and writes on democracy, dictatorship and resistance; comparative social movements; collective violence; racial profiling, police violence and racial and ethnic discriminat…
Diane Singerman Associate Prof Emeritus
Dr. Singerman is an Associate Professor and comparativist whose research interests focus on political change from below, particularly in the Middle East, and more specifically Egypt. Her work examines…
Elizabeth Thompson Professor and Mohamed S. Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace, SIS SIS | Global Inquiry
Elizabeth F. Thompson is a historian of social movements and liberal constitutionalism in the Middle East, with a focus on how race and gender relations have been conditioned by foreign intervention a…
John Willoughby Professor CAS | Economics
Professor Willoughby has recently returned from a two-year stay in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates where he helped create an undergraduate economics program at the new American University of Sharjah. He…