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Case Western Reserve University

Pete Moore, Political Science

Pete Moore is Associate Professor of Political Science at Case Western Reserve University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Middle East Report. Prior to CWRU, he held positions at Concordia University in Montreal, Dartmouth College, and the University of Miami in Coral Gables. His research focuses primarily on issues of political economy, state society relations, and sub-state conflict in the Gulf and the Levant.

In 2008-2009, Professor Moore was a Senior Fulbright Fellow at Zayed University in Dubai, UAE. He earned his BA from the Virginia Military Insitute, MA from the University of Virginia, and a PhD from McGill University.

Ramez Islambouli, Religion and Modern Languages

Ramez Islambouli, a native of Lebanon, moved to the United States in 1985 to pursue his academic studies. He holds an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a graduate degree in bioethics, both from Case Western Reserve University. He is an adjunct professor of Islamic law at the Law School and Islamic Studies in the Dept. of Religious Studies and a full-time lecturer and section head of Arabic language in the Dept. of Modern Languages and Literature at CWRU. He is the faculty advisor for the Muslim Students Association (MSA).

In the greater Cleveland area, Islambouli teaches Islamic studies at Cleveland State University, John Carroll University and Cuyahoga Community College. He serves as a Muslim Chaplain at University Hospitals and at Cuyahoga Hills Juvenile Correctional Facility. Currently he is the President of Uqbah Mosque Foundation in Cleveland.

John Grabowski, History

John J. Grabowski is Krieger-Mueller Associate Professor in Applied History at Case Western Reserve University. interests and research span the fields of public and academic history. He specializes in the areas of immigration and ethnicity; local (Cleveland) urban history; and public history, particularly the fields of archives and museums. Grabowski also serves as Director of Research at the Western Reserve Historical Society.

In addition to teaching at the department, Grabowski also oversees the World Wide Web edition of The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History/Dictionary of Cleveland Biography, a joint project of Case Western Reserve University and the Western Reserve Historical Society.

Kent State University

Josh Stacher, Political Science

Josh Stacher is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Kent State University. Prior to joining KSU, Stacher was a post- doctoral fellow at Syracuse University. Stacher’s scholarship focuses on authoritarian durability and social movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

Stacher is the author of the forthcoming Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria (Stanford UP, 2012). In addition, he also has published research on the Egyptian Society of Muslim Brothers as well as the unfolding Egyptian transition. He is also a frequent contributor to Middle East Report.

Stacher earned his BA from Washington & Jefferson College, MA in Political Science from the American University in Cairo, and a PhD in International Relations at the University of St. Andrews.

Cleveland State University

Neda Zawahri, Political Science

Neda Zawahri is Associate Professor of Political Science at Cleveland State University. Zawahri’s scholarship encompasses an examination of the management of international river disputes, the role of international institutions in facilitating cooperation, environmental security, and the potential for conflict and cooperation between adversaries.

Specifically, Zawahri's regional focus include the Middle East and South Asia, where she has conducted extensive field research that was funded by various grants. Zawahri has published extensively on these issue areas and she has co-edited several special issues. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Stephen Cory, History

Stephen Cory is Associate Professor of History at Cleveland State. Dr Cory holds a joint appointment in the History and Religious Studies Departments at Cleveland State. His specialty is the history and religion of the Islamic Middle East and North Africa. His research focuses upon the use of religious imagery for political legitimization and upon the development of Hispano-Maghribi civilization in North Africa following the conquest of Islamic Spain during the late medieval and early modern periods.

Dr. Cory spent two years conducting research in Morocco (with funding from Fulbright and Fulbright Hays fellowships) and has presented his research at a number of scholarly meetings, including the Middle East Studies Association and the World Congress of Middle East Studies. Dr Cory is also Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program at CSU, which was initially established with Title VI funding in 2005. The program hopes to eventually offer a major in Middle Eastern Studies at Cleveland State.

John Carroll University

Zeki Saritoprak, Islamic Studies

Zeki Saritoprak is Director of the Nursi Chair in Islamic Studies at John Carroll University, having held this position since 2003. He holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Theology or The Science of Kalam from the University of Marmara, in Istanbul, Turkey. He earned his Master’s degree in Islamic Theology and Philosophy, and his B.A. in religion from the same university. He is the Founder and former President of the Rumi Forum for Interfaith Dialogue in Washington, D.C.

In addition to his current position at John Carroll, Saritoprak has also researched and taught courses at Harran University (Turkey), Georgetown University, the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and Berry College in Rome, Georgia. In addition to presenting at numerous conferences and universities over the years, Saritoprak is also the author of several books and academic articles in Turkish, English, and Arbic.

Baldwin-Wallace College

Indira Gesink, History

Indira Gesink is Associate Professor of Middle Eastern History at Baldwin-Wallace College. Gesink's research interests include the evolution of the al-Azhar movement in Sunni Islam (the subject of her dissertation and a recent book, "Islamic Reform and Conservatism: al-Azhar and the Evolution of Modern Sunni Islam") as well as Egypt in general. Gesink has also been active in the Adams St. Cemetery project, aimed at rehabiliting the lost histories of those buried in Berea, Ohio's oldest cemetery.

Gesink holds a B.A. in History from Western Michigan University's Lee Honors Program. She earned her Master's and Ph.D. in History from Washington University in St. Louis. Gesink has been teaching at Baldwin-Wallace since obtaining her Ph.D.