The Center draws on the expertise and experience of faculty members from multiple departments and the library at OSU, covering Northern Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and other Muslim-majority areas of the world. The fields of expertise listed under each person’s name will inform prospective students about the areas of specialty they could pursue in graduate programs at OSU, and which departments have Middle East studies as a permanent part of their curriculum.
NOTE: Please send mail to the faculty member's office in their department, rather than sending it to the Middle East Studies Center
Yiğit Akın, Ph.D., Ohio State University
Associate Professor and Carter V. Findley Professor of Ottoman and Turkish History
(Islamic History; Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy; Power, Culture, and the State; Comparative Empires)
email: akin.16@osu.edu
Ahmad Al-Jallad, PhD., Harvard University
Professor of Arabic, Sophia Chair in Arabic Studies
Early history of Arabic and North Arabian. Arabic from the pre-Islamic period to present, Graeco-Arabica, language classification, North Arabian epigraphy, historical Semitic linguistics. The first grammar of Safaitic.
email: al-jallad.1@osu.edu
Hassan Aly, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University
Professor Emeritus, Economics
(Economic Development; Middle East Economics; Applied Microeconomics)
email: aly.1@osu.edu
Sean Anthony, Ph.D., The University of Chicago
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Early Islam and Late Antiquity; Islamic Thought; Classical Arabic Literature)
email: anthony.288@osu.edu
David Bernhard Brakke, Ph.D., Yale
Professor, History
(Ancient Christianity, Early Christianity in Egypt, Monasticism, Gnosticism.)
email: brakke.2@osu.edu
Naomi Brenner, Ph.D., The University of California at Berkeley
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Modern Hebrew Literature and Culture; Literary Multilingualism and Translation; Modern Yiddish Literature and Culture)
email: brenner.108@osu.edu
John B. Casterline Ph.D., The University of Michigan
Professor, Sociology
(Family; Methodology; Population)
email: casterline.10@osu.edu
Stratos Constantinidis, Ph.D., The University of Iowa
Professor, Theater
(Critical Theory Plato – Present; Research Method; Classical Drama; Medieval Drama; Elizabethan Drama; Aesthetic Styles; English Novel 19th Century; Greek Drama 15th – 20th Century; Greek Cinema; Greek Novel; Script Analysis; Translation; Adaptation; Creative Writing)
email: constantinidis.1@osu.edu
Magda El-Sherbini, MA, Catholic University of America
Professor and Head Librarian, Middle East Studies Collection
(Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Turkish Studies; Global Information Society; Multilingual Subject Access and Access to Foreign Materials)
email: el-sherbini.1@osu.edu
Howard Federspiel, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
(political and religious development of the Muslim populations of Southeast Asia)
email: manley15@live.com
Carter Findley, Ph.D., Harvard University
Professor Emeritus, History
(Islamic History; Comparative Empires; Power, Culture, and the State)
email: findley.1@osu.edu
Daniel Frank, Ph.D., Harvard University
Associate Professor, Coordinator of Hebrew Language Program, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Medieval Jewish History; Bible, Judeo-Arabic)
email: frank.152@osu.edu
Joseph Galron, M.L.S., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Associate Professor and Jewish Studies Librarian, Special Collections and Area Studies
(Germanic Languages and Literatures; Jewish Studies; Yiddish)
email: galron.1@osu.edu
Matt Goldish, Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Professor, History
(Jewish History; Environment, Health, Technology, and Science; Religion in History)
email: goldish.1@osu.edu
Esther Gottlieb, Ph.D., The University of Pittsburgh
Senior Advisor for International Affairs and Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education, Office of International Affairs
(Curriculum Assessment and Reform; Internationalization of the Learning Experience; World-Class Education; Higher Education)
email: gottlieb.26@osu.edu
Fritz Graf, Ph.D., The University of Zurich
Distinguished University Professor, Director of Epigraphy, Classics
(Greek Epigraphy; History of Scholarship; Ancient Religions and Mythologies)
email: graf.65@osu.edu
Timothy Gregory, Ph.D., University of Michigan
Professor Emeritus, History
(Society of the Early Byzantine Period in Cyprus; History of Greece in the later Roman Period; the use of archaeological evidence for historical reconstruction)
email: gregory.4@osu.edu
Peter Hahn, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
Professor, History
(US History since 1877; Diplomatic History; Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy)
email: hahn.29@osu.edu
J. Albert Harrill, Ph.D., The University of Chicago
Professor, Classics and History
(Ancient History, Religion in History)
email: harrill.5@osu.edu
Jane Hathaway, Ph.D., Princeton University
Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, History
(Islamic History; Comparative Empires; Religion in History )
email: hathaway.24@osu.edu
Richard Herrmann, Ph.D., The University of Pittsburgh
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
(International Relations; American Foreign Policy)
email: herrmann.1@osu.edu
Susan Huntington, Ph.D., The University of California at Los Angeles
Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, History of Art
(South Asian Art and Culture; Buddhist Art and Artifacts)
email: huntington.1@osu.edu
Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., Columbia University
Professor Emeritus, Germanic Languages and Literatures
(Yiddish Phonology and Morphology; History of the Yiddish Language; Yiddish Linguistic Geography)
email: jacobs.8@osu.edu
Pranav Jani, Ph.D., Brown University
Associate Professor, English
(Postcolonial Studies; US Ethnic Studies; Marxism)
email: jani.4@osu.edu
Craig Jenkins, Ph.D., SUNY
Professor, Sociology
(Political Economy; Conflict & Violence Internationally; Bangladesh)
email: jenkins.12@osu.edu
Xinquan Jiang, Ph.D., The University of Michigan
Senior Research Associate, Office of International Affairs
(Chinese; Korean; Internationalization in Higher Education; Assessment of Intercultural Competence)
email: jiang.533@osu.edu
Brian Joseph, Ph.D., Harvard University
Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and The Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Languages and Linguistics
(Language change over time, with particular attention to Greek and related languages such as Sanskrit, Albanian, and Turkish, thus in its genealogical Indo-European context and its contact-related Balkan context.)
email: joseph.1@osu.edu
Robin Judd, Ph.D., The University of Michigan
Associate Professor, History
(Modern European History; Jewish History; Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy; Power, Culture, and the State; Race, Ethnicity, and Nation; Religion in History)
email: judd.18@osu.edu
Mehrak Kamali-Sarvestani, Ph.D., The University of Arizona
Lecturer and Persian Language Program Coordinator, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (Persian Language; Persian Literature; Contemporary Iranian Society)
email: kamalisarvestani.1@osu.edu
Laurie Katz, Ed.D., University of Massachusetts
Professor, Education and Human Ecology
(Young children and families from birth; teacher preparation of early childhood educators in the U.S., Israel, and Brazil; inclusive education; narrative styles of young children)
email:katz.124@osu.edu
Ousman Kobo, Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Associate Professor, History
(African History; Comparative Empires; Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy; Race, Ethnicity, and Nation; Religion in History)
email: kobo.1@osu.edu
Rattan Lal, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Professor, School of Environment and Natural Resources
(Environmental Quality and Sustainability; Food Security; Climate Change and Soil Carbon; Soil Degradation and Restoration)
email: lal.1@osu.edu
Scott Levi, Ph.D., The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professor and Chair, History
(Islamic History; Russian and East European History; Global Early Modern; Comparative Empires; Religion in History)
email: levi.18@osu.edu
William Liddle, Ph.D., Yale University
Professor Emeritus, Political Science
(Islam; Southeast Asia)
email: liddle.2@osu.edu
Morgan Liu, Ph.D., The University of Michigan
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Ethnological Approaches to Cities, Space, and Materiality; Anthropology of the State, Post-socialism, and Neoliberalism; Oil and Energy Industries in Central Asia and Azerbaijan; Cultural Anthropology of Muslim Societies)
email: liu.737@osu.edu
Peter Mansoor, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Professor, General Raymond Mason Chair of Military History, History
(US History since 1877; Military History; Human Conflict, Peace, and Diplomacy)
email: mansoor.1@osu.edu
Danielle Marx-Scouras, Ph.D., Columbia University
Professor, French and Italian
(Contemporary French and Francophone Literature; Intellectual History and Theory; Popular Music)
email: marx-scouras.1@osu.edu
Melinda McClimans, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Assistant Director, Middle Eastern Studies Center
(Critical Global Education; Pedagogy/Learning; Middle East Curriculum)
email: mcclimans.2@osu.edu
Joy McCorriston, Ph.D., Yale University
Professor, Anthropology, Director of the Middle East Studies Center
(Archaeology; Environmental Anthropology; Paleoecology; Behavioral Ecology; Social-ecological Systems)
email: mccorriston.1@osu.edu
Thomas F. McDow, Ph.D., Yale University
Associate Professor, History
(Indian Ocean & intellectual networks of medicine, linguistics, zoology, & botany in the 19th c.; Arabic business deeds & family networks linking Arabia, India, & Africa.)
email:mcdow.4@osu.edu
Sam Meier, Ph.D., Harvard University
Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Hebrew Bible; Ancient Semitic Languages and Texts; Comparative Semitic Linguistics)
email: meier.3@osu.edu
Katherine Meyer, Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Provost and Professor Emeritus, Sociology
(Political Sociology and Social Movement; Religion; Social Change and Conflict)
email: meyer.23@osu.edu
James Moore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Northwest Semitic Epigraphy, Achaemenid Mediterranean Social History, Hebrew Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Scribal Culture, - Religious - Economies and Empire)
email: moore.5089@osu.edu
Mark Moritz, Ph.D., UCLA
Professor, Anthropology
(Pastoralism, complex systems, commons, ethnography, agent-based modeling, coupled human and natural systems.)
email:moritz.42@osu.edu
Mytheli Sreenivas, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Chair and Professor, Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
(Women's and Gender History, Modern South Asia, Cultural and Political Economy of Reproduction, Global and Transnational Feminisms)
email:sreenivas.2@osu.edu
Ila Nagar, Ph.D., The Ohio State University
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages Center
(Sociolinguistics, Ethnography, Language Variation and Change; Language, Gender, and Sexuality; South Asia Studies and Hindi Pedagogy)
email: nagar.5@osu.edu
Christopher Parmenter., Ph.D, New York University
Assistant Professor, Department of Classics
(Archaic Greece, History of Race, Cross-cultural Trade, Slavery, Maritime History, Classical Reception)
email: parmenter.14@osu.edu
Laura P. B. Partain, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, School of Communication
(Inter and Intra Group Communication; Stereotype Interventions and Prejudice Reduction; Representations of Race, Ethnicity, Religion, and Citizenship Status (refugees, immigrants); Health and Wellness Communication)
email: partain.7@osu.edu
John Quigley, L.L.B., Harvard Law School
Professor Emeritus, College of Law
(International Law)
email: quigley.2@osu.edu
Amanda S. Respess, Ph.D., University of Michigan
Assistant Professor, Department of History
(East Asian History, Environment, Health, Technology, and Science, Islamic History, Medieval History)
email: respess.1@osu.edu
Tamar Rudavsky, Ph.D., Brandeis University
Professor, Philosophy
(Ancient and Medieval Philosophy; Jewish and Islamic Philosophy; Phenomenology and Existentialism)
email: rudavsky.1@osu.edu
Kaya Şahin, PhD, University of Chicago
Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs, Professor, Department of History
(Middle Eastern History, Russian and East European History, Empire and Colonialism)
email: sahin.53@osu.edu
Danielle Schoon, Ph.D., The University of Arizona
Senior Lecturer, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Turkish Studies; Romani Studies; Performance Studies; Ethnography)
email: schoon.2@osu.edu
Johanna Sellman, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Assistant Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Contemporary Arabic Literature; Migration and Diaspora; Translation Studies; Visual Culture of the Middle East)
email: sellman.13@osu.edu
Ahmad Sikainga, Ph.D., The University of California at Santa Barbara
Professor, Department of History
(African History)
email: sikainga.1@osu.edu
Michael Swartz, Ph.D., New York University
Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Division of Comparative Studies and Melton Center for Jewish Studies
(Rabbinic Studies; Magic and Ritual; Judaism and Late Antiquity)
email: swartz.69@osu.edu
Adena Tanenbaum, Ph.D., Harvard University
Associate Professor, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Philosophical Themes in Hebrew Poetry from Spain; Medieval Jewish Intellectual History)
email: tanenbaum.8@osu.edu
Jeffrey Trimble, M.A., Ohio State University
Lecturer, Communication
(International journalism; disinformation as a foreign policy tool)
Inés Valdez, Ph.D., The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Associate Professor and Program Director of the Latino/a Studies Program, Political Science and Latino/a Studies
(Latina/o Political Thought; Political Theory of Migration; Cosmopolitanism)
email: valdez.39@osu.edu
Burkhard Von Rabenau, Ph.D., The University of California at Berkeley
Professor Emeritus, Knowlton School of Architecture
(Urban/Regional Economic Development and Growth; Problems of Urbanization)
email: vonrabenau.1@osu.edu
Mohan Wali, Ph.D., The University of British Columbia
Professor Emeritus, School of Environment and Natural Resources
(Ecosystem Disturbance and Rehabilitation/Restoration; Sustainable Development, Energy Use and Policy)
email: wali.1@osu.edu
Sabra Webber, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin
Professor Emeritus, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Department of Comparative Studies
(Folkloristics; Ethnography; Colonial/Contemporary North Africa; Disciplinary Dialogues and Histories)
email: webber.1@osu.edu
Ori Yehudai, PhD, The University of Chicago
Schottenstein Chair in Israel Studies and Assistant Professor, Department of History
(Jewish History; Power, Culture, and the State; Race, Ethnicity, and Nation)
email: yehudai.3@osu.edu