Departmental Faculty

Mahmoud Ali

Assistant Professor of Practice

Assistant Academic Director, Arabic Flagship & Project Global Officer

Santa Rita House 10
Mahmoud Azaz headshot.

Mahmoud Azaz

Director of Graduate Studies, MENAS

University of Arizona Distinguished Fellow

Associate Professor, Arabic Language, Linguistics, & Pedagogy

  • Arab world
  • Second language acquisition and pedagogy
  • Sociolinguistics
Marshall 444  
Anne Betteridge

Anne Betteridge

Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Professor, Iranian Women & Culture

  • Iran and the Persianate World
  • Anthropology
  • Gender Studies
Julia Clancy-Smith

Julia Clancy-Smith

Regent's Professor

  • North Africa and the Mediterranean
  • Modern and world history
  • Imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East and North Africa
Marshall 447

Samira Farwaneh

Arabic Language Coordinator, MENAS

Associate Professor, Arabic Language & Linguistics

  • Arab world
  • Phonology and morphology
  • Sociolinguistics

Benjamin Fortna

Director, School of Middle Eastern & North African Studies

Professor, History of Modern Middle East & Ottoman Empire

  • The Ottoman Empire and Turkey
  • Modern history
  • Biography and education
Laura Frances Goffman's headshot.

Laura Frances Goffman

Assistant Professor, Health Studies of the Middle East & North Africa

  • History of health disease and medicine
  • Modern Arab world
  • Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf

Leila Hudson

Associate Professor, Modern Middle East Culture & Political Economy

Marshall 445

Scott Lucas

Director of Undergraduate Studies, MENAS

Associate Professor, Islamic Studies

  • Arab world
  • Islamic thought
  • Zaydi Islam in Yemen
Maha Nassar

Maha Nassar

Associate Professor, Modern Middle East History, Islamic Studies

  • Modern Arab world
  • Cultural and intellectual history
  • Palestinian identity formation and transnational discourses
Marshall 453

Narges Nematollahi

Assistant Professor of Practice, Persian Language

  • Ancient and early medieval Iran
  • Historical and socio-linguistics
  • Stylistics
Yaseen Noorani's headshot.

Yaseen Noorani

Associate Professor, Arabic and Persian Language & Literature

Austin O' Malley's headshot.

Austin O'Malley

Assistant Professor, Persian and Iranian Studies

  • Persianate world
  • Literature
  • Sufism
Ahmet Okal's headshot.

Ahmet Okal

Assistant Professor of Practice, Turkish Language

Sonia Shiri

Sonia Shiri

Director, Arabic Special Programs

Professor, Arabic

Kamran Talattof

Chair, Roshan GIDP in Persian and Iranian Studies

Professor, Persian and Iranian Studies

  • Iran and the Persian world
  • Persian literature and Iranian culture and cinema
  • Gender and ideology