Derek Penslar was educated at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. He taught at Indiana University between 1987 and 1998, when he moved to the University of Toronto. Between 2012 and 2016 Penslar taught at Oxford University...
On leave for the 2025-26 academic year.
Lorenzo Bondioli's work investigates the political economy of medieval Islamic empires, aiming to lay bare the antagonistic symbiosis between the merchant and ruling classes, and the ever-embattled entanglement of...
On leave fall 2025.
Rosie Bsheer is a historian of the modern Middle East. Her teaching and research interests center on Arab intellectual and social movements, petro-capitalism and state formation, and the production of historical knowledge and...
Gülru Necipoğlu has been Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Art at Harvard University since 1993 where she earned her PhD in 1986. She specializes in the medieval and early modern periods, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean basin and Eastern Islamic...
Professor Naddaff focuses on English, French, Arabic Narrative; 1001 Nights; Translation; Literature and Music; Arab-American Ethnic Identity; Cross-Cultural Literary Relations between the Arab Middle East and western Europe. In 1975, she received her AB...
Dr. Keshavjee is a professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as a physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He...
Professor Kafadar is interested in the social and cultural history of the Middle East and southeastern Europe in the late medieval/early modern era. He teaches courses on Ottoman history, urban space, popular culture as well as history and cinema. His...
On leave spring 2026.
Intisar A. Rabb is a Professor of Law, a Professor of History, and the faculty director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School. She has held appointments as a Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Radcliffe...
On leave for the 2025-26 academic year.
Melani Cammett is Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government and Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Her research explores...