MECA Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Minor  Hofstra University Participating Faculty Daniel Martin Varisco Jacques Berlinerblau Magnus Bernhardsson Massoud Fazeli Vedit N. Inal Mustapha Masrour Fatemeh Moghadam Mara Naaman Aleksandr Naymark Ozum Ocok Khalid Soliman

Director Daniel Martin Varisco Associate Professor of Anthropology 205E Davison Hall (463-5590) [Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1982]   Primary Research Interests: Islam, History of Orientalism, Traditional Agriculture, Folk Astronomy, Red Sea and Indian Ocean Trade, Yemen Ethnography Major Publications: Medieval Folk Astronomy and Agriculture in Arabia and the Yemen. Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited., 1997.   Medieval Agriculture and Islamic Science. The Almanac of a Yemeni Sultan Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994. faculty webpage online c.v.

Jacques Berlinerblau Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Languages Advisor, Jewish Studies xx Calkins Hall [Ph.D., New York University, 1991]   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications:

Magnus Bernhardsson Assistant Professor of History [Ph.D., Yale University, 1999] 107 Heger Hall (463-5607)   Primary Research Interests: Modern Middle Eastern history, especially the cultural and political history of Iraq, history of archaeology, apocalypticism, and nationalism.   Major Publications: Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Nationalism and Archaeology in Modern Iraq (Austin, University of Texas Press, forthcoming)   Editor, Imagining the End: Visions of Apocalypse from the Ancient Middle East to Contemporary America and United States and the Middle East: Cultural Encounters.   faculty webpage

Massoud Fazeli Adjunct Assistant Professor of Economics M.A., New School for Social Research, 1981   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications:

Vedit N. Inal Adjunct Assistant Professor of Economics/Geography M.A., New School for Social Research, 1986   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications:

Mustapha Masrour Director of the Language Learning Center Assistant Professor in Romance Languages and Curriculum and Teaching [Ph.D. Hofstra University 2002]   Primary Research Interests: Literacy studies, Colonial, Post-colonial, and Neo-colonial studies, Francophobe Literatures, Applied Linguistics, Cross-cultural studies, World languages, and Language Teaching Methodologies.

Fatemeh Moghadam Professor and Chair, Department of Economics/Geography [Ph.D., Oxford, 1979]   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications:

Mara Naaman Adjunct Instructor in University Studies [M.A., Columbia, 2001]   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications:

Aleksandr Naymark Assistant Professor of Fine Arts [Ph.D., Indiana University, 2001]   Primary Research Interests: Art History, Numismatics and Archaeology of pre-Islamic Central Asia   Major Publications:

Ozum Ocok Assistant Professor of Speech Communication and Rhetorical Studies M.A., Texas Tech University, 1998 Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin, 2002   Primary Research Interests: Language and culture, visual culture, social interaction, religion and gender relations in Turkish culture  Major Publications: Bruder, K. A., Ucok, O. (2000). Interactive art interpretation. Symbolic Interaction, 23(4), 337-358.   Ucok, O. (Forthcoming, 2002). From diagnostic to aesthetic: Moving beyond diagnosis. In Maxwell, M., Kovarsky, D., Duchan, J. Diagnosis as Cultural Practice: An Account of the Power of the Language of Diagnosis.

Khalid Soliman Special Assistant Professor of Business Computer Information Systems M.B.A., Murray State University, 1991   Primary Research Interests:   Major Publications: