He teaches courses on the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East and the Muslim world. He is the author of The Power of Representation: Publics, Peasants and Islam in Egypt (Stanford, 2009), and along with Michael Bonine and Abbas Amanat co-edited Is There a Middle East? The Evolution of Geopolitical Concept (Stanford 2012). He was named a Carnegie Scholar for his project entitled "Rethinking Secularism and Sectarianism during the Lebanese Civil War.” His research on the social and cultural history of the Arab world broadly revolves around the representation and performance of communal, religious, and national identity. His current work, based on archival sources and oral histories, explores these questions through the lens of “everyday life” during Lebanon’s sixteen-year civil war (1975-1991). « back to List of Fellows