Curriculum Vitae

Education

The University of Chicago

• Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 2014Thesis Title: “The Political Landscape of the Yemeni Central Highlands during the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods”
• M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 2005
• University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.S. with distinction in Anthropology, 2002

Research Employment

• 2011-2018 Researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences and the University of Vienna, Visions of Community: Comparative Approaches to Ethnicity, Region and Empire in Christianity, Islam and Buddhism (400-1600 CE)
• 2010-2011 Translator, The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, Iraq Oral History Project
• 2008-2011 Ceramic Analyst, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Tell al-Judaidah (Turkey) Publication Project
• 2010 Translator and Editor, The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq, Tell Asmar and Tell Muqtadiya (Iraq) object catalogue
• 2005-2006 GIS Analyst and Researcher, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Modeling Ancient Settlement Systems in Mesopotamia project

 

Selected Fellowships and Grants

• 2010, 2006 American Institute for Yemeni Studies Research Fellowship
• 2008-2009 IIE Fulbright Fellowship
• 2008-2009 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship (declined)
• 2004 American Institute for Yemeni Studies Language Fellowship
• 2003-2008 Century Fellowship (U. of Chicago)
• 2001 Phi Kappa Phi Summer Research Fellowship

Teaching Experience

• 2018    Lecturer, “Tribes in the Medieval Islamic World”
• 2017    Lecturer, “Reading and Analyzing Texts from the Medieval Islamic World”
• 2016    Lecturer, “Reading and Analyzing Texts from Medieval South Arabia”
• 2013    Co-Lecturer and Co-Course Coordinator, “Medieval Communities in Comparison”

• 2011, 2007 Lecturer, “History and Archaeology of Pre-Islamic Arabia”
• 2007 Lecturer, “Method and Theory in Near Eastern Archaeology”
• 2006 Teaching Assistant, “History of Ancient Mesopotamia and Iran”

 

Selected Archaeological Fieldwork

• 2006-2009      Surveyor and Ceramic Analyst, Dhamar Survey Project (Yemen)
• 2008                Surveyor, GIS Analyst, and Excavation Supervisor, Tell Zeidan (Syria)
• 2005-2006       Excavation Supervisor, Tell Hamoukar (Syria)
• 2004                Excavation Supervisor, Harran cemetery in Dhamar (Yemen)
• 2001                Excavation Supervisor, Tell Tuneinir (Syria)
• 2000                Excavator, Jebel Hamrat Fidan (Jordan)

Selected Conference and Workshop Papers

• 2018    “Understanding Yemeni Tribalism: A Temporal Approach,” Yemen’s Living Heritage: Tribes and Tribalism into the 21st Century Workshop, Vienna (Austria)
• 2017    “The Ethnic Origin Narratives of the Rasulids in Late Medieval South Arabia,”
• Narratives of Ethnic and Tribal Origins in Eurasian Comparison Workshop, Vienna (Austria)
• 2017    “Deconstructing the Rasulid Court,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds (U.K.)
• 2017    “Obituaries in the Service of the Rasulid State,” Medieval Biographical Collections: Perspectives from Buddhist, Christian and Islamic Worlds Workshop, Vienna (Austria)
• 2016    “Reports of Muslims Looting Pre-Islamic Burials from a Medieval South Arabia Text,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Boston (USA)
• 2016    “Non-Local Glazed Ceramics from the Islamic Period Yemeni Highlands,” 10th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Vienna (Austria)
• 2016    “Under Siege: The Political Landscape of the Yemeni Central Highlands during the Late      Medieval and Early Ottoman Periods,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta (USA)
• 2015    “From State Soldiers to Rebel Tribes: Kurds in Late Medieval South Arabia,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds (U.K.)
• 2015    “A Tale of Two Families: The Varied Formation of Post-Abbasid Polities in Ninth
• Century South Arabia,” In the Shadows of Empire II: Peripheral Polities of Byzantium and the Caliphate VISCOM International Workshop, Vienna (Austria)
• 2014    “A Cultural Heritage Text from Early Medieval South Arabia,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. (USA)
• 2014    “The Ideological Establishment of the Rasulids as a Sub-Imperial Power in Medieval South Arabia,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds (U.K.)
• 2013    “The Effects of Rasulid and Mamluk Rule over the Resistant Central Highlands of Yemen,” Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans (USA)
• 2013    “The Political Construction of a Tribal Genealogy from Early Medieval South Arabia,” Meanings of Community across Medieval Eurasia VISCOM conference, Vienna (Austria)
• 2013    “The Divisive Formation and Contentious Competition of Tribal Groups in the Highlands of South Arabia during the Medieval Period,” International Medieval Congress, Leeds (U.K.)
• 2012    “The Ceramic Production of Rural Communities in the Yemeni Central Highlands during the Islamic Period,” The Materiality of the Islamic Rural Economy Workshop, U. of Copenhagen (Denmark)
• 2012    “The Islamic Period Ceramic Industry of the Dhamar Basin in the Central Highlands of Yemen,” Eighth International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, Warsaw (Poland)
• 2011    “Putting a New Islamic Period Ceramic Assemblage from Highland Yemen into its Social Context,” American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meeting, San Francisco (USA)
• 2011    “Fortified Islamic Sites of the Dhamar Basin in the Central Highlands of Yemen,” Seminar for Arabian Studies, London (U.K.)
• 2010  “A Tribal Landscape: Islamic Sites of the Dhamar Basin in the Central Highlands of Yemen,” American Schools of Oriental Research Annual Meeting, Atlanta (USA)
• 2009    “Preliminary Results from the Analysis of Islamic Ceramics and Sites in the Dhamar Basin,” Centre Français d’Archéologie et de Sciences Sociales de Sanaa, Sanaa (Yemen)