# Congratulations, CMES Graduates 2019–20! May 29, 2020 CMES is pleased to congratulate this year's graduating class of eight students who earned a master's degree in Regional Studies—Middle East and its graduating PhD students. ## AM Graduates and Thesis Titles - **Badriyyah S. Alsabah** - **Sultan Faiez Althari** - **Hannah M. Clager**—Thesis: "The 'Houthification' of Education in Yemen: A Revival of Pedagogical Battlegrounds?" | Advisor: Rosie Bsheer - **Eleanor Takenaka Ellis**—Thesis: "The Afterlives of Aftershocks: Collective Memory and the 1992 Cairo Earthquake" | Advisor: Soha Bayoumi | CMES Thesis Prize - **Thomas Roland Harris** - **Ryan Herring** - **Maria Khoury**—Thesis: "Ghosts and Parallel Times: The Haunting of Palestinian Citizens of Israel" | Advisor: Rosie Bsheer - **Kit Hoi (Jerry) Li** ## PhD Graduates and Dissertation Titles - **Gwendolyn Collaço**—Dissertation: "The Image as Commodity: The Commercial Market for Single-Folio Paintings in Ottoman Istanbul, 17th–18th c." | Advisors: Gülru Necipoğlu and David Roxburgh - **Ekin Kurtic**—Dissertation: "Sedimented Encounters: Dams, Conservation, and Politics in Turkey" | Advisors: Ajantha Subramanian, Steve Caton, and Christine Walley (MIT) - **Arafat Abdur Razzaque**—Dissertation: "The Sin of Ghība in Early Islamic Thought: Disciplining the Tongue in the Zuhd Tradition and Its Late Antique Background" | Advisors: Afsaneh Najmabadi and Roy Mottahedeh - **Mira Xenia Schwerda**—Dissertation: "How Photography Changed Politics: The Case of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911)" | Advisors: David Roxburgh and Gülru Necipoğlu | Alwaleed Bin Talal Prize for Best Dissertation in Islamic Studies honorable mention ![CMES graduates 2019-20](/sites/g/files/omnuum9116/files/cmes/files/2020_grad_group.jpg) CMES virtual commencement celebration, May 2020 See also:- [ Student News ](/news-type/student-news) - [ 2019-20 ](/academic-year/2019-20) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)