Members

Middle Eastern Studies Advisory Council

Jason Aleksander Department of Philosophy Office: N-411 Phone: (773) 298-3242 E-mail: aleksander@sxu.edu Jason Aleksander teaches courses in the history of philosophy, including courses in medieval philosophy and philosophy of religion that stress the interconnections and tensions between medieval Christian and Judeo-Arabic/Islamicate philosophical and religious thought as well as their mutual indebtedness to ancient Greek philosophy. His current research interests are in the history of philosophy from the late Middle Ages to the eighteenth century. At Vanderbilt University, his dissertation, The Disavowal of Renaissance Philosophical Crises and the Geneses of Modern Philosophy and Science, focused on the significance of the mutual, interrelated origins of modern science and secular political theory in the crises of Renaissance philosophy. His immediate research concerns the philosophical background responsible for the eventual success of the Copernican Revolution.
Khaled Alzoubi Department of Computer Science Office: N-313 Phone: (773) 298-3863 E-mail: alzoubi@sxu.edu
Jim Aman Department of Computer Science Office: N-326 Phone: (773) 298-3454 E-mail: aman@sxu.edu Jim Aman is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and chair of that department. The son of a Unitarian (formerly Methodist) minister and a German Congregationalist, he has taught in the Catholic parochial system in Houston, Texas, and at Quaker and Catholic universities. He converted to Islam prior to his marriage to an Iranian-American in 1990. The conversion closed a genealogical circle; his first ancestors in North America were Muslims of Dutch-Moroccan heritage from Salee, Morocco. Thus, his ecumenical upbringing and personal interests in Islam and Iran bring focus to his involvement in the Middle Eastern Studies program.
Ali Anooshahr Department of History and Political Science Office: N-225 Phone: (773) 298-5938 E-mail: anooshahr@sxu.edu Ali Anooshahr teaches World History as well as comparative pre-modern Islamic history at Saint Xavier University. He received his B.A. in Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin (1994), and received his MA and Ph.D. in Islamic History from the University of California, Los Angeles (2005). He has taught at UCLA, Santa Monica College, Cal State LA, and Cal State San Marcos before joining SXU. His publications include: “‘Utbi and the Ghaznavids at the Foot of the Mountain” Iranian Studies 2005 [271-292], and “Mughal historians and the memory of the Islamic conquest” Indian Economic and Social History Review 2006 [275-300]. He is currently working on a book called “The Ghazi Sultans and the Frontiers of Islam”, looking at memory, self-fashioning, and intertextuality in the writings of three ghazi (holy warrior) kings of the pre-modern period—viz. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna, Babur {Founder of the Mughal Dynasty}, and the Ottoman Sultan Murad II.
Michael Bathgate Department of Religious Studies Office: N-418 Phone: (773) 298-3027 E-mail: bathgate@sxu.edu Michael Bathgate teaches courses in the comparative study of religions, including RELST 249: The Islamic Tradition and RELST 240: The Religious Other (a course that focuses on inter-religious contact and dialogue). His research has focused on Japanese religious history, with particular interest in the meanings and uses of popular narrative. His first book, entitled The Fox’s Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities, was released in 2004. His current research concerns the history of sacred biography in the Japanese tradition of Pure Land Buddhism.
Christopher Clott Graham School of Management Office: GSM-201 Phone: (773) 298-3667 E-mail: clott@sxu.edu Christopher Clott teaches courses in International Business and Marketing and is the Director of the Center for International Education. He is developing a course on economic issues in the Middle East. His research has focused on global outsourcing and supply chain management. He is presently writing a book on global outsourcing.
Mitra Fallahi School of Education Office: G-207 Phone: (773) 298-3336 E-mail: fallahi@sxu.edu
Alberta Gatti Department of English and Foreign Languages Office: N-419 Phone: (773) 298-3234 E-mail: gatti@sxu.edu
Omer Mozaffar Department of Religious Studies
Laurence Musgrove Department of English and Foreign Languages Office: N-416 Phone: (773) 298-3241 E-mail: musgrove@sxu.edu Laurence Musgrove is an associate professor of English and teaches courses in writing and literature. The founding director of the Middle Eastern Studies program, Dr. Musgrove developed MES 150: Middle Eastern American Experience, a course on the cultural and historical backgrounds of Middle Eastern Americans, as well as the contemporary issues this population faces.
Ruma Niyogi-Salhi Department of History and Political Science Office: N-214 Phone: (773) 298-3758 E-mail: niyogi@sxu.edu Dr. Niyogi teaches courses on early Islamic history, the history of the Crusades, world history, medieval history, and women and gender issues. She is particularly interested in cultural exchange in the medieval Mediterranean among the Islamic world, Byzantine empire, and western Europe.
Michael Rabe Department of Art and Design Office: L-128 Phone: (773) 298-3088 E-mail: rabe@sxu.edu Michael Rabe is an Associate Professor of Art History, teaching a broad array of survey courses. After a decade of childhood spent in India, and three consecutive degrees in South Asian Studies - in Philosophy, Sanskrit literature and Art History (University of Minnesota Ph.D., 1987) - his primary research focus is on early cave-architecture and Indian sculpture. However, he also teaches a course on Art of the Islamic World during alternating Spring semesters. Links to richly-illustrated postings of several of his publications appear on his Web site.
Iman N. Saca Chair, Middle Eastern Studies Program, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice Office: L-312B Phone: (773) 298-3554 E-mail: saca@sxu.edu Iman N. Saca is currently an assistant professor of Anthropology at Saint Xavier University and the Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program. She teaches all the major branches of Anthropology (cultural, physical and archaeology), as well as courses on the archaeology of the Middle East (mainly prehistory) and on Middle Eastern culture and society. She was the curator of Embroidering Identities: a Century of Palestinian Clothing Exhibit at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. For her research she frequently travels to Jordan and Palestine. Dr. Saca is currently working on a proposal that will bring together various governmental and non-governmental institutions interested in the protection of the cultural and archaeological heritage in conflict areas mainly the West Bank. She is also interested in Community Archaeology; a way of involving the local population in archaeological projects and the benefits of such involvement and cooperation. Dr. Saca has presented papers at various national and international conferences, and published few articles in Prehistory and on Palestinian embroidery traditions and their meaning.
Zepure Samawi School of Nursing Office: E-215 Phone: (773) 298-3726 E-mail: boyadjian@sxu.edu Zepure Samawi was born in Aleppo, Syria and grew up in Jerusalem, Israel. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the Arab Colleges of Paramedical Professions, El-Bireh, West Bank. She then worked as a neonatal intensive care nurse in Makassed Hospital, Jerusalem. She joined the faculty of nursing at Bethlehem University, where she taught theory and clinical nursing. She was awarded a scholarship by American Middle East Educational and Training Services (AMIDEAST) and was sponsored by the University to pursue a Master of Science degree in nursing of children, which she received in 1991 from Arizona State University. She joined the faculty of the School of Nursing at Saint Xavier University in 1999 and received her Doctorate in Nursing Science in May, 2006 from Widener University. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society of Nursing, Association of Women's Health Obstetric Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and the Jordanian Nurse Association.
Raymond Taylor Department of History and Political Science Office: L-323 Phone: (773) 298-3238 E-mail: taylor@sxu.edu
Amani Wazwaz Department of English and Foreign Languages