Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies Program

ACTING DIRECTOR

MARTIN JACOBS - Ph.D. and Habilitation, Free University of Berlin, 1994 & 2002
Associate Professor of Rabbinic Studies
Interests: Rabbinic literature and thought; Jewish Historiography; Jewish-Muslim cultural and literary contacts; Rabbinic and Islamic interpretation; Jews in Islamic lands
Contact: Busch Hall 124D, 935-4891, Box 1111, mjacobs@wustl.edu

FACULTY

ASAD AHMED - Ph.D., Princeton University, 2006
Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Religion
Interests: Arabo-Islamic philosophy and theology, with a special focus on logic and epistemology; classical Arabic poetry and poetics; Hadith studies; Tafsir; and Graeco-Arabica
Contact: Busch Hall 114C, 935-7894, Box 1111, aahmed@artsci.wustl.edu

LOIS BECK - Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1977
Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology
Interests: Political anthropology, history, tribe-state relations, Nomadic Pastoralism, Islam, Gender; Iran, the Middle East
Contact: McMillan 116, 935-5290, Box 1114, lbeck@wustl.edu

HOUSNI BENNIS - M.A., Washington University, 1995
Lecturer in Arabic
Interests: Arabic language
Contact: Busch Hall 24, 935-4905, Box 1111, hbennis@wustl.edu

NANCY E. BERG - Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1991
Associate Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature
Interests: Modern Hebrew language, literature; Israeli culture; Israeli immigrant writers; women’s writing
Contact: Busch Hall 112, 935-4451, Box 1111, nberg@wustl.edu

JOHN BOWEN - Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1984
Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, Sociocultural Anthropology;Chair, Social Thought and Analysis
Interests: Religion and ritual, Islam, social theory, kinship and social organization, historical studies, culture and political change; Sumatra, Indonesia, Europe
Contact: McMillan 133, 935-5680, Box 1114, jbowen@wustl.edu

ROBERT CANFIELD - Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1971
Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology
Interests: Political anthropology, peasant society, ethnicity and symbolism, historical anthropology; Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Islamic World
Contact: McMillan 340, 935-5282, Box 1114, canfrobt@wustl.edu

GIORE ETZION - M.A., University of Michigan, 1982
Senior Lecturer in Modern Hebrew
Interests: Hebrew Pedagogy; educational technology
Contact: Busch Hall 20, 935-4249, Box 1111, etzion@wustl.edu

FARIBA FAYAZ - M.A., Adelphi University, 1985
Lecturer in Persian
Interests: Persian Language
Contact: Busch Hall 114B, 935-8576, Box 1111, ffayaz@wustl.edu

CATHLEEN A. FLECK - Ph.D., John Hopkins University, 1999
Assistant Dean, College of Arts and Sciences; Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities
Interests: Medieval art history with a concentration on European and Islamic art of the Mediterranean
Contact: Umrath East 201D, 935-4796, cfleck@artsci.wustl.edu

GERALD IZENBERG - Ph.D., Harvard University, 1968
Professor of History
Interests: Jewish intellectual history, modern Europe.
Contact: Busch Hall 223, 935-5445, Box 1062, gnizenbe@wustl.edu

AHMET T. KARAMUSTAFA - Ph.D., McGill University, 1987
Professor of Islamic History and Religious Studies
Interests: Islamic civilization, Sufism, Turkish and Persian Islam
Contact: Busch Hall 119, 935-4446, Box 1062, akaramus@wustl.edu

FATEMEH KESHAVARZ - Ph.D., London University, 1985
Chair, Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literatures; Professor of Persian Language and Literature
Interests: Persian poetry, Islamic mysticism, women's studies
Contact: Busch Hall 121, 935-5156, Box 1111, fatemeh@wustl.edu

HILLEL J. KIEVAL - Ph.D., Harvard University, 1981
Chair, History; Gloria M. Goldstein Professor of Jewish History and Thought
Interests: Jewish culture and society in East Central Europe, Ethnicity and nationalism, History and memory
Contact: Busch Hall 118, 935-5450, Box 1062, hkieval@wustl.edu

ERIN MCGLOTHLIN - Ph.D., University of Virginia, 2001
Assistant Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Interests: Postwar and contemporary German and German-Jewish literature; Literature of the Holocaust; Narrative theory; Autobiography; Theater & drama
Contact: Ridgley Hall 421, 935-4288, Box 1104, emcgloth@wustl.edu

TIMOTHY H. PARSONS - Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1996
Professor of African and Afro-American Studies
Interests: Islam in Africa
Contact: McMillan 236, 935-4974, Box 1109, tparsons@wustl.edu

RAMI PINSBERG - M. Ed., University of Missouri in St. Louis, 1979
Senior Lecturer in Modern Hebrew
Interests: Hebrew Language Pedagogy
Contact: Busch Hall 20, 935-4249, Box 1111, pinsberg@wustl.edu

GIL RIBAK - Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2007
Lewin Postdoctoral Fellow in American Jewish History
Interests: American Jewish history, ethnic relations in the United States, comparative Jewish history, Yiddish culture
Contact: Busch Hall 103B, 935-8815, Box 1121, gribak@wustl.edu

NANCY REYNOLDS - Ph.D., Stanford University, 2003
Assistant Professor of Modern Middle East History
Interests: The intersection of the political economy and cultural history of twentieth-century Egypt
Contact: Busch Hall 213, 935-4167, Box 1062, nreynolds@wustl.edu

JOSEPH SCHRAIBMAN - Ph.D., University of Illinois
Professor of Romance Languages
Interests: Inquisition in literature in Spain and Hispanoamerica, Jews of Cuba
Contact: Ridgley 405, 935-5109, Box 1077, jschraib@wustl.edu

ITAI SENED - Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1989-90
Chair and Professor of Political Science
Interests: Israeli Politics, Comparative theory of institutions, Game theory, Mathematical modeling
Contact: Eliot 219, 935-5873, Box 1063, sened@artsci.wustl.edu

JACK SHAPIRO - Ph.D., City University of New York, 1970
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Interests: Talmudic literature.
Contact: Cupples I, 107B, 935-6787, Box 1146, jshapiro@wustl.edu

YOUNASSE TARBOUNI - M.A., Carson-Newman College, 1998
Lecturer in Arabic
Interests: Arabic language
Contact: Busch Hall 24, 935-4905, Box 1111, ytarboun@artsci.wustl.edu

MOHAMED-SALAH OMRI- Ph.D. Washington University in St. Louis, 2001
Associate Professor of Arabic
Interests: Modern and premodern Arabic literature, Francophone literature of the Maghreb, comparative literature, Arab cinema, Tunisia
Contact: Busch Hall 28, 935-4325, Box 1111, momri@artsci.wustl.edu

MOHAMMAD WARSI – Ph.D. Aligarh Muslim University, India 1998
Lecturer in South Asian Languages and Linguistics
Interests : Hindi-Urdu language, linguistics and literature
Contact: Busch Hall 8, 935-5156, Box 1111, mwarsi@artsci.wustl.edu

MICHAEL WIDLANSKI - Ph.D., Bar Ilan University, 2004
2007-08 Schusterman Visiting Professor of Israel Studies in Arts & Sciences
Interests: Israeli and Arab politics and communications, extremist ideologies, terrorism
Contact: Busch Hall 204, 935-9076, Box 1121, mwidlans@artsci.wustl.edu

EMERITUS PROFESSORS

HENRY BERGER - Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1966
Emeritus Professor of History
Interests: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East
Contact: Busch Hall 205, 935-5333, Box 1062, hwberger@wustl.edu

VICTOR T. LE VINE - Ph.D., University of California-Los Angeles, 1961
Emeritus Professor of Political Science
Interests: Middle Eastern politics
Contact: Eliot 228, 935-5867, Box 1063, vlevine@artsci.wustl.edu

PATTY JO WATSON - Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1959
Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor Emerita, Anthropology
Interests: Ancient civilizations of the Old World, Near Eastern archaeology, Eastern Woodlands and Southwestern U.S. prehistory

Washington University in St. Louis
Program in Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies
Campus Box 1121; One Brookings Drive; St. Louis, MO 63130-4899