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
Associate Professor of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies
Interests: Rabbinic literature and culture; Jewish historiography in medieval and early-modern times; medieval Jewish and Muslim travel literature; Jewish-Muslim cultural and literary contacts; history of the Jews in Islamic lands.
Contact: Eliot Hall 300C, 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: Eliot Hall 300J, 935-7894, Box 1111, aahmed@artsci.wustl.edu

PAMELA BARMASH - Ph.D. Harvard University, 1999
Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew
Interests: History of law, religions of the ancient Near East, history of scriptual interpretation
On leave 2008-09 academic year

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: Eliot Hall 300L, 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: Eliot Hall 200A-2, 935-4451, Box 1111, nberg@wustl.edu
On leave Fall 2008

MATTHEW E. BROWN - Ph.D., Washington University, 2006
Lewin Postdoctoral Fellow in Jewish Studies
Interests: Modern Jewish history, thought, and culture; modern European history, focus on Central Europe; European intellectual history
Contact: Eliot Hall 300E, 935-9083, Box 1121, mebrow@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: Eliot Hall 200A-1, 935-4249, Box 1111, etzion@wustl.edu

FARIBA FAYAZ - M.A., Adelphi University, 1985
Lecturer in Persian
Interests: Persian Language
Contact: Eliot Hall 200G, 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: Eliot Hall 336, 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: Eliot Hall 334, 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: Eliot Hall 209, 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: Eliot Hall 229, 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/Eliot 220, 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: Eliot Hall 200A-1, 935-4249, Box 1111, pinsberg@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: Eliot Hall 325, 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: Seigle 236, 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: Eliot Hall 300H, 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: Eliot Hall 300K, 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: Eliot Hall 215, 935-5156, Box 1111, mwarsi@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