I am a historian of the Modern Middle East, specializing in modern Iraqi, Arab, and colonial history, an organic vegetable farmer, and avid trail-runner and photographer.
I am a Lecturer of modern Middle East history in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, where I also serve as a graduate student Preceptor in the Center for Middle East Studies.
My research interests include the social and political history of the late nineteenth and twentieth century Middle East, colonial and post-colonial state-building, state-tribal relations, and border communities and borderlands.
In the summer, I help grow vegetables at Turtle Creek Gardens, a certified organic, bio-dynamic farm in southern Wisconsin. I am especially interested in building soil health through natural amendments, cover crops, and crop rotation.