Professors to Avoid
Campus Watch is often asked which professors are most responsible for the politicization and bias sadly endemic to Middle East studies.
Given the discipline's decline, compiling an inclusive list would be futile. Hundreds of names could be credibly included, but even such a list would surely omit some while failing to highlight those most responsible for the field's general decline into a mockery of academe's purpose and aspirations.
In this spirit, we have selected those professors whose biases, ahistorical claims, apologetics, willful blindness, intolerance of opposing views, and mixing of politics and scholarship mark them as the most egregious offenders of the high standards to which faculty should be held.
For a listing of the field's outstanding figures, please go to the parallel page, "Recommended Professors."
Rabab Abdulhadi
Senior Scholar, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative
Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies
San Francisco State University
Listed academic expertise: Palestine, Arab, and Muslim communities; race and resistance studies; transnational feminisms; gender and sexuality studies.
https://amed.sfsu.edu/rabab-abdulhadi-profile
Khaled Abou El Fadl
Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Professor of Law
University of California, Los Angeles
Listed academic expertise: International human rights; Islamic jurisprudence; national security law; law and terrorism; Islam and human rights; political asylum; political crimes and legal systems.
https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/khaled-m-abou-el-fadl
Thomas Abowd
Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Boston College
Listed academic expertise: colonialism and decolonization; race and racial politics; gender and sexuality; Arab and Muslim Americans; policing and urban protest.
https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/academics/sites/university-catalog/courses/arts-sciences/sociology.html
Nadia Abu El-Haj
Professor of Anthropology
Co-Director, Center for Palestine Studies
Barnard College
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: archaeology, genetic anthropology.
https://barnard.edu/profiles/nadia-abu-el-haj
https://palestine.mei.columbia.edu/people/nadia-abu-el-haj
As'ad AbuKhalil
Professor of Political Science
California State University, Stanislaus
Listed academic expertise: comparative politics of the Middle East; gender and sexuality in the Middle East; politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
https://www.csustan.edu/political-science/faculty-staff
Lila Abu-Lughod
Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: gender politics and nationalism in the Muslim world; liberalism, culture, and the politics of human and women's rights.
https://anthropology.columbia.edu/content/lila-abu-lughod
Gil Anidjar
Professor of Religion and Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS)
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: Jews and Arabs, political theology, race and religion, Christianity, Jewish thought, rhetorical exertion, continental philosophy.
https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/gil-anidjar/
https://religion.columbia.edu/content/gil-anidjar
Reza Aslan
Professor of Creative Writing
University of California, Riverside
Listed academic expertise: religion, theology, fiction, sociology.
https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/aslanr
Hatem Bazian
Lecturer in Arabic, Department of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures
Continuing Lecturer, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies
Department of Ethnic Studies
Director, Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project
University of California, Berkeley
http://nes.berkeley.edu/faculty/bazian.html
https://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/people/hatem-bazian/
https://www.crg.berkeley.edu/hatem-bazian/
Co-founder and Assistant Professor of Islamic Law and Theology
Zaytuna College
https://zaytuna.edu/academics/faculty/hatem-bazian
Listed academic expertise: Arabic language, Arab society and culture, colonialism and post-colonial studies, ethnic studies, Islamic studies, Islamic law, Palestine studies.
Joel Beinin
Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus
Stanford University
Listed academic expertise: workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East; Israel, Palestine, Arab-Israeli conflict.
https://history.stanford.edu/people/joel-beinin
Jonathan A. C. Brown
Professor, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Chair of Islamic Civilization
School of Foreign Service
Georgetown University
Listed academic expertise: Hadith, Islamic law, Salafism, Sufism, Arabic lexical theory, and Pre-Islamic poetry.
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RYoCAAW/jonathan-brown
Juan Cole
Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History
University of Michigan
Listed academic expertise: modern history of the Middle East; America and Middle Eastern wars; religion in South Asia; Shia Islam: Iran, Iraq and India; Bahá'í studies.
https://lsa.umich.edu/history/people/faculty/jrcole.html
Elliott Colla
Associate Professor
Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies
Georgetown University
Listed academic expertise: modern Arab literature, culture and politics, antiquities.
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RrLDAA0/elliott-colla
Craig Considine
Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology
Rice University
Listed academic expertise: Muslims in the United States, "Islamophobia," Christian-Muslim relations, Muhammad, American national identity, religious pluralism, diaspora.
https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/craig-m-considine
Miriam Cooke
Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor Emerita of Arab Cultures
Duke University
Listed academic expertise: Arabic, 20th century, criticism, feminist theory, comparative literature.
https://scholars.duke.edu/person/mcw
Hamid Dabashi
Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: Iranian studies, Iranian cinema.
https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/hamid-dabashi/
Beshara Doumani
(On leave until 2023) Mahmoud Darwish Professor of Palestinian Studies
Founding Director, Center for Middle East Studies
Brown University
President
Birzeit University
Listed areas of expertise: the social, economic, and legal history of Eastern Mediterranean, displacement, academic freedom, the ethics and politics of knowledge production, and the Palestinian condition.
https://vivo.brown.edu/display/bdoumani
https://www.birzeit.edu/en/faculty-staff/beshara-doumani
Noura Erakat
Associate Professor of Africana Studies
Program in Criminal Justice
Rutgers University
Listed academic expertise: human rights law, humanitarian law, national security law, refugee law, social justice, and critical race theory.
https://crimjust.rutgers.edu/people/faculty-directory/details/30-faculty/faculty/620-erakat-noura
John Esposito
Distinguished University Professor, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Professor of Islamic Studies
Founding Director, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding
Project Director, Bridge Initiative
Georgetown University
Listed academic expertise: Islam, Islam and politics, Islamophobia, Muslim-Christian relations, religion, violence and terrorism.
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RbJ4AAK/john-esposito
https://bridge.georgetown.edu/team/john-l-esposito/
James Gelvin
Professor of History
University of California, Los Angeles
Listed academic expertise: social and cultural history of the modern Middle East, particularly Greater Syria, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
https://history.ucla.edu/faculty/james-gelvin
Sherman Jackson
(aka: Abdul Hakim Jackson)
Distinguished Professor, King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture
Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity
University of Southern California
Listed academic expertise: classical Islamic Studies, including law, theology and intellectual history; modern Islam in the West; Muslim communities in America.
https://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1038031
Nazia Kazi
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Stockton University
Listed academic expertise: race, immigration, inequality, "Islamophobia," social theory.
https://stockton.edu/social-behavioral-sciences/sociology-anthropology.html
https://drnaziakazi.com/
Rashid Khalidi
Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: Middle Eastern history; the United States, the Middle East and the Cold War; Islamic movements in the modern Middle East; Orientalism; modern history of Palestine; nationalism in the Arab world.
https://history.columbia.edu/faculty/khalidi-rashid/
Muqtedar Khan
Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations
Founding Director, Islamic Studies Program
University of Delaware
Listed academic expertise: American Muslims, foreign policy, international relations, Muslims in the West, national security, Pakistan, political Islam.
https://www.poscir.udel.edu/people/faculty/mkhan
Deepa Kumar
Professor of Journalism and Media Studies
Rutgers University
Listed academic expertise: Islamophobia, political Islam, empire, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, the Arab Spring, women and Islam.
https://comminfo.rutgers.edu/kumar-deepa
Satyel Larson
Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Princeton University
Listed academic expertise: anthropology, law and society, the Maghreb, Islam and secularism, women, gender, and sexuality.
https://nes.princeton.edu/people/satyel-larson
Mark LeVine
Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History
University of California, Irvine
Listed academic expertise: Middle East history, cultures and religions of the modern Middle East, globalization, the role of music in political struggles, culture jamming, critical theory.
http://www.faculty.uci.edu//profile.cfm?faculty_id=5356
Zachary Lockman
Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and History
New York University
Listed academic expertise: socioeconomic, cultural and political history of the modern Middle East, particularly the Mashriq.
https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/zachary-lockman.html
Ian Lustick
Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political Science, Emeritus
University of Pennsylvania
Listed academic expertise: comparative politics, international politics, Middle Eastern politics, agent-based, computer assisted modeling for the social sciences.
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/polisci/people/standing-faculty/ian-lustick
Mohammad Jafar Mahallati
Professor of Religion
Presidential Scholar in Islamic Studies
Oberlin College
Listed academic expertise: the ethics of peacemaking in Islam in the context of comparative religions, ethics of war, ethics of friendship.
https://www.oberlin.edu/mohammad-jafar-mahallati
Saree Makdisi
Professor and Chair
Department of English and Comparative Literature
University of California, Los Angeles
Listed academic expertise: British Romanticism, imperial culture, colonial and postcolonial theory and criticism, cultures of urban modernity, contemporary Arab politics and culture.
https://english.ucla.edu/people-faculty/makdisi-saree/
Mahmood Mamdani
Herbert Lehman Professor of Government
Professor of Anthropology, Political Science, and African Studies
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: the study of Africa; the modern state and the colonial subject; the Cold War and the Third World; the theory, history, and practice of human rights; civil wars and the state in Africa.
https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/mahmood-mamdani/
Joseph Massad
Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History
Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: Palestinian, Jordanian, and Israeli nationalism; theories of identity and culture; theories of nationalism, sexuality, race and religion.
https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/joseph-massad/
Ingrid Mattson
Professor of Islamic Studies
London and Windsor Community Chair in Islamic Studies
Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Listed academic expertise: Islamic studies; classical Islamic thought, culture and practices; Islamic ethics; interpreting the Qur'an.
https://huronatwestern.ca/profiles/faculty/ingrid-mattson-phd/
Ali Mirsepassi
Albert Gallatin Excellence Research Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
Director, Iranian Studies Initiative
Former Director, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies
New York University
Listed academic expertise: social theories of modernity, Iranian intellectual history, political Islam, modern Islamic thought, and sociology of religion.
https://as.nyu.edu/faculty/ali-mirsepassi.html
Timothy Mitchell
William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies
Columbia University
Listed academic expertise: modern Arab history and politics, the history of economic knowledge, energy politics and world history.
https://mesaas.columbia.edu/faculty-directory/timothy-mitchell/
Anne Norton
Stacey and Henry Jackson President's Distinguished Professor of Political Science
University of Pennsylvania
Listed academic expertise: identity and history, gender and race, colonialism and post colonialism, tradition and revolution.
https://www.polisci.upenn.edu/people/standing-faculty/anne-norton
https://web.sas.upenn.edu/endowed-professors/norton/
Jasbir Puar
Professor and Graduate Director of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Rutgers University
Listed academic expertise: critical ethnic studies, cultural studies, feminist globalization studies, immigration and diasporas, queer studies, sexualities studies.
https://womens-studies.rutgers.edu/people/core-faculty?view=article&id=143:jasbir-puar&catid=66:core-faculty
https://jasbirkpuar.com/
Omid Safi
Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Duke University
Listed academic expertise: Islamic mysticism (Sufism), contemporary Islamic thought, medieval Islamic history.
https://scholars.duke.edu/person/omid.safi
Stephen Sheehi
Sultan Qaboos bin Said Chair of Middle East Studies, Professor of Arabic Studies
College of William and Mary
Listed academic expertise: photography theory, psychoanalysis, decoloniality, Palestine, and Race and Islamophobia.
https://www.wm.edu/as/modernlanguages/faculty/sheehi-s.php
Kaukab Siddique
Associate Professor of Languages and Literature
Lincoln University
Listed academic expertise: Islam, Muslims in China and the West, Muslim women.
https://www.lincoln.edu/faculty-and-staff/directory/kaukab-siddique
Rebecca L. Stein
Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Duke University
Listed academic expertise: digital media, Middle East, Orientalism, Palestine, Zionism.
https://scholars.duke.edu/person/rlstein
Denis Sullivan
Professor of Political Science and International Affairs
Co-Director of the Middle East Center
Northeastern University
Listed academic expertise: Egyptian society and culture, Islam, politics in the Middle East.
https://cssh.northeastern.edu/faculty/denis-sullivan/
Judith Tucker
Professor Emerita of History and Middle Eastern Studies
Georgetown University
Listed academic expertise: the Arab world in the Ottoman period, women and gender in Middle East history, and Islamic law, women, and gender.
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014RVxKAAW/judith-tucker
