I am originally from Grand Junction, Colorado, and I obtained my BA at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. My MA and PhD are from the University of California, Santa Barbara. I completed my dissertation research in Jerusalem and London as a Fulbright-Hays fellow. Since completing my PhD in 2008, I taught World History at a prep school for three years and Middle Eastern history courses at UC Santa Barbara for one year. In my free time, I enjoy skiing, playing tennis, and walking my dog.

Teaching Interests

My modern Middle East course examines imperialism and nationalist movements, Islamist groups, US wars and foreign policy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the recent uprisings across the Arab world. My approach to teaching World History, the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine emphasizes gender, race, and class as tools of analysis. It also explores social history, such as patterns of consumption and production, and other aspects of people’s everyday lives.

Research Interests

My research interests intersect topics of gender, Muslim Family Law, colonialism, and Palestinian history. My dissertation, “Gender, Muslim Family Law, and Contesting Patriarchy in Mandate Palestine, 1925-1939,” demonstrates how Palestinian women were often able to gain benefits by maneuvering within the male-privileged court system. I examine how non-elite women used the court to their advantage by using gendered strategies in child custody, maintenance, and women-initiated divorce cases. Another aspect to my thesis concerns British colonial education and other social policies, as well as Palestinian responses to them. I am currently in the process of revising my thesis for publication.

Consulting Interests

2013: Review of Consuming Desires: Family Crisis and the State in the Middle East, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, Indiana University Press

2011: Baathism, Yasser Arafat, Shi'a Islam, Jews for Jesus, Christian Zionism, The PLO, Middle East Peace Process, Middle East Wars, Wahabism, Gender in Dar al-Islam, Fatima bint Muhammad, ABC-CLIO

2006: Huda Sha’rawi, Ayatollah Khomeini, Lord Curzon , Macmillan Reference

2004: Review of Dreaming of Palestine, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin/Cambridge University Press (126-127 pp.)

Fall 2013

HIST 315 HISTORY MODERN MIDDLE EAST

HIST 127 WRLD HIST II: FROM 1300-1800

HIST 128 WRLD HIST III: 1800 TO PRESENT

Spring 2013

HIST 319 ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

HIST 499 INDEPENDENT STUDY

HIST 126 WRLD HIST I: ANTIQUITY TO 1300

HIST 128 WRLD HIST III: 1800 TO PRESENT

Fall 2012

HIST 315 HISTORY MODERN MIDDLE EAST

HIST 128 WORLD HISTORY 1800 - PRESENT

HIST 128 WORLD HISTORY 1800 - PRESENT