Director of Middle East & Islamic Studies - UofL

Associate Professor of History - UofL

PhD University of Chicago - Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

MA The University of Texas - Middle Eastern Studies

I hold a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations from the University of Chicago. In addition

to the position of Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Louisville, I

am the director of our interdisciplinary Middle East & Islamic Studies program. My primary area of

research is concerned with inter-confessional relationships during the early Islamic period, from the

seventh to ninth centuries CE. This interest specifically relates to the status of Christian communities

living within a Muslim political milieu. My first monograph, entitled Christian Monastic Life in Early

Islam, was published in April 2021 by Edinburgh University Press - Studies in Classical Islamic

History and Culture Series.

At the University of Louisville, I teach a number of courses that deal with the medieval NearEast/Middle East. These include The Origins of Islam, The Islamic Middle East to 1500 CE, Medieval Christian-Muslim Relations, and Byzantium and Islam.