Interests:

I focus on contemporary political theory and comparative politics, in both the U.S. and the Middle East.  My dissertation examines how states exert power in the face of natural disasters and the political dissent prompted by these events.  I recently returned from a year of fieldwork in Oman through a Fulbright Scholarship, where I collected data for my research on the politics of cyclones in the Sultanate.  

I did my B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in Philosophy and History.  I also studied at the New School’s Graduate Program of International Affairs, University of Damascus, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and did an M.A. in political science at the University of Toronto.

Courses Taught:

UMass: Government and Politics in the Middle East

TA at UMass: Post-Colonial Thought; World Politics; American Politics Through Film; Introduction to Political Theory; Politics of Food; American Political Thought; Comparative Politics; American Foreign Policy.

TA at University of Toronto: Introduction to International Relations; Conflict and Peacekeeping