As a historian with major teaching fields in the history of medicine, and of both the medieval and modern Middle East, and substantial background and research in cultural linkages, I am prepared to teach a variety of courses on the Middle East/North Africa, as well as broader courses of interest including world history surveys, and courses focused on the Mediterranean littoral, the Silk Route, and the Indian Ocean.

My introductory history of medicine course, Plagues and Pandemics, is a comparative U.S./global class that examines social issues such as racism and homophobia, and the ways that health and disease have been used to delineate social lines.

In teaching, I emphasize the notion of history-as-inquiry, encouraging students to think about not only what we know about the past, but how and why we know it. I prefer to use as many primary texts as possible; an exercise that has proven quite popular involves assembling primary document sets to have students work with in class.

I see my role in the classroom as the facilitator of discussion and inquiry rather than as the gatekeeper of definitive answers. Particularly when it comes to teaching the modern Middle East, my goal is to emphasize the multiplicity of perspectives as well as the complexity of issues rather than emphasize the “correctness” of one over another.

Read more about my teaching philosophy.

Survey/Lower Division courses I am prepared to teach:

History of Medicine

  • Colonial and Tropical Medicine
  • Disease, Race, and Difference
  • The History of Medicine and Disease in the Islamic World
  • Medicine and Public Health in 19th-Century Egypt
  • Plagues and Pandemics

World & Middle East History

  • History of Islamic Civilizations, 600-1500
  • History of Islamic Spain
  • History of the Ottoman Empire
  • The Indian Ocean World
  • Introduction to Islam
  • Introduction to the Contemporary Middle East/North Africa
  • The Medieval Mediterranean
  • The Silk Route

I am also prepared to teach world history surveys focusing on the period from Late Antiquity to the present, especially those that are non-western focused; I am particularly interested in developing thematic world history/global studies surveys around topics such as material culture, trade, art, and food.

Upper Division/Graduate courses I am prepared to teach:

History of Medicine

  • Advanced Readings in Islamic Medicine
  • Colonialism and the Body
  • Comparative Readings in Galenic, Islamic, and Ayurvedic Medicine
  • Public Health and State Power in Egypt
  • Epidemics and Politics during World War I
  • Imperialism, Health, and Disease

World / Middle East History

  • Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism
  • Comparative Statebuilding: Egypt, Turkey, and Iran
  • Environment, Health, and Nationalism in the Middle East, 1800-1930
  • The Middle East from WWI to The Arab Spring
  • Modern Egypt
  • Pandemics and Public Health
  • World War I in the Middle East
  • World War I: The Colonial Experience
  • Terrorism and Extremist Movements