Academic Experience

Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies BA/MA program (2021-current)


Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Political Science Department, 2014-present

Teaching Graduate Courses:

  • Foundations of Peace Studies
  • Diplomacy and Cross -Cultural Negotiations
  • Undergraduate Classes:
  • Islam and Politics
  • Women in Islam
  • Middle East Politics
  • The Politics of Identity in the Middle East
  • The Politics of Discord Between the Middle East and the West.
  • Introduction to Peace Studies
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics

Research Affiliate, at the Center for Middle East Studies, Harvard University, 2016- 2021.


Visiting Scholar, at Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program, Harvard University, 2014-2016.


Co-Director of the Cohort for the Study of Islam and International Relations. (2013- present)


Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Political Science Department, 2008-2014


Lecturer, Bentley College, International Studies, Fall 2007

Courses taught:

  • Introduction to International Relations

Lecturer, Stonehill College, History Department, Fall 2006

Courses taught:

  • Modern Middle East History 

Islamic Legal Consultant, The Islamic Jurisprudential Council of North America, 2003-present.

The Fiqh Council of North America is the largest academic jurisprudential council for Muslims living in North America (Canada, Mexico, and the United States). The 18 members of the Council issue religious rulings, resolve disputes, and answer questions relating to edicts of the Islamic faith.


Full time Visiting Assistant Professor (non-tenure track), Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA, Department of History and Fares Center for Mediterranean Studies, 1996-2003

Courses taught:

  • Islamic Activism in the 20th Century
  • History of Muslim Women
  • Modern North Africa
  • History of Discord between the Arab East and the West
  • Modern Islamic Political Thought
  • Modern History of the Middle East

Instructor, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, 1995

 Courses taught:

  • International Politics of the Middle East

Teaching Assistant/Instructor, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 1991-1992

Courses taught:

  • Political Science Theory (3 Classes)
  • Government and Politics in the Middle East (Graduate class)

Research Assistant, Minorities at Risk Project under the supervision of Professor Ted Robert Gurr.

Assisted in analyzing and reporting on minorities in the Middle East and supervising undergraduate students collect and record data (Kurds in Iran, Iraq and Turkey, Palestinians in Israel). Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM), 1989-1992). University of Maryland, College Park.


Teaching Assistant, International Relations, Suez University, Suez, Egypt, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, 1988-1990


Research Assistant, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, 1987-1988

Desert Development Project, Socio-economic Analysis Unit                                              


Research Assistant, The National Center for Sociological and Criminological Research, Cairo, Egypt, 1986