Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Graduate Student, History

Enhanced Chancellor's Fellow- Graduate Teaching Fellow

City University of New York- Graduate Center

Thesis Title: ???

About

I am a doctoral student in early Islamic, Byzantine and late antique History at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. My Minor field is in Ancient History. I received my Masters degree  from Villanova University in History in 2009 (Major Field: Mediterranean from Antiquity to Modern Era; Minor Field: Modern Middle East).

Recent publication: “Urban Violence in Fifth Century Antioch: Riot Culture and Dynamics in Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean Cities,” CONCEPT: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Graduate Studies (2009).

So far my research has been rather broad as to include such topic as the apotropaic nature of 7th-9th century pseudo-Arabic inscriptions in their relation to artistic motifs of abundance on Syro-Egyptian silks and the dual processes of the formation of religious identity and socio-cultural gender norms in 12th century western Europe.

My most recent research has concentrated on two somewhat disparate features of the late antique and early medieval world.  First, previously presented at conference in 2011, "Emperor and Ecclesia" concerns the evolution of Ecclesiastical History from the 4th to 6th century, concentrating particularly on the socio-religious and political theory of the HE of Evagrius Scholasticus.  Second, my most recent research argues for a necessary revaluation of our conceptualization of the Byzantine/Islamic frontier taking into account a combination of the material and literary evidence, especially concentrating on the 'no mans land' of Cilicia and Isauria from the 7th to 10th centuries. 

My research interests in general cover a broad swath of time roughly within the confines of Late Antiquity, encompassing Late Roman/ Early Byzantine/ Early Medieval and the Early Islamic periods from the heyday of Roman imperium to the disintegration of the Islamic caliphate. In geographic terms I focus on the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly the Levant but I am continuously lured elsewhere with significant interests in southern Arabia, the Transcaucasus, and North Africa and even Iberia.

While my degrees are in History my undergraduate minors were in both Philosophy and Classical Studies.

The thematic concentration of my work is in the socio-cultural and religious conflicts and syncretisms of transitional regions and periods.

As may be readily apparent my interests have a broad range but I am primarily interested in the Byz-lamic socio-cultural interaction in the 7th through 9th centuries.