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MAAS Alumni: Amawi, Dunne, Fischbach, de la Cruz, Hasso, Atalla, Huggins, Jacob, Kindt, Ayoub, Wilcox, Khabbaz, Somers, Kiamie, Geary, Maddux, McNulty, Blatteis.
Published in 2005
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Abla Amawi (1986) assumed the post of Capacity 2015 Regional Coordinator for Arab States/Capacity Development Adviser stationed in Beirut with UNDP in November 2004.
In March 2005, she co-chaired with Sheila Carapico a workshop on “Democracy Promotion in the Arab Mediterranean” at the Sixth Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting of the Mediterranean Programme of the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute/Montecatini Terme, Florence. She will be also in-country coordinator for the Fulbright Teachers Exchange programme in cooperation with Garay Menicucci (1986) on behalf of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Center for Middle East Studies this summer.
Michele Durocher Dunne (1986) recently joined the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy and Rule of Law program as editor of the monthly online journal the Arab Reform Bulletin. Michele also continues to teach Arabic at Georgetown. To view the journal or for a free subscription, go to www.carnegieendowment.org (See also “US-Libya Relations” page 11).
Michael Fischbach (1986) delivered a talk in January on the peace process and Palestinian refugee property claims at The University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
Isabel de la Cruz (1987) is still working for UNRWA in Jerusalem where she also works in an artists’ studio (the ArtBox), which she started last year with a colleague, Mahmuda Ali.
From Frances Hasso (1990): “With sons Jamal (11) and Naseem (6), Jeff and I are busy as ever balancing careers, family, and everything else. I was recently awarded tenure at Oberlin College, and have three publications in press and forthcoming in fall 2005: Divisions in the Nation: Gender, Politics, and Protest in Occupied Palestine and Jordan (Syracuse University Press); “Problems and Promise in Middle East/North Africa Gender Research,” in Feminist Studies; and “Political and Discursive Deployments by/of the 2002 Palestinian Women Suicide Bombers/Martyrs,” in Feminist Review. My new project on non-traditional marital and sexual unions among Sunni Muslims has been taking me to the UAE and Egypt for fieldwork.”
Rania Atalla (1991), from 1999 to 2005 director of Jordanian Queen Rania’s office,has recently been appointed as head of the Royal Hashemite Court’s media and information department in Amman.
Dave Huggins (1994) writes: “After Georgetown, I spent a year in Tunisia, a few years stateside, a year in Bosnia, two years in Jordan, and two and half years as the Military Advisor at the Department of State to Assistant Secretary William Burns. While at State I was also detailed to travel as an advisor to General Anthony Zinni when he was assigned as the Special Envoy to the region. I have had plenty of interesting experiences in the ME in the last ten years. Currently, I’m in Bahrain as the US Defense Attache. I got picked up for full Colonel in December, am headed to War College this summer, and probably Egypt or Iraq after that. I also got married! I met my wife, Lina, in Jordan, and now have two stepdaughters and a beautiful little boy, Davis, who will be three in June. So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy.”
Wilson Chacko Jacob (1995) is busy finishing up his dissertation in order to graduate from New York University in May, after which he will begin a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Cornell University (affiliated with the History Department).
From Valerie Kindt (1995): “I am now a Senior Director at ACCION International,
a non-profitorganizationworkingto alleviate poverty through microlending. This year ACCION will expand its operations from Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa to the Middle East and Eastern Europe. I will be working on the expansion into these new markets and will start off by seeking new potential partners among commercial banks in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria and Morocco. I am excited to finally get back to the region where I started off my career 10 years ago.”
Joseph Ayoub (1996) continues working to make the world safe for capitalism at the US Department of Commerce. He was recently promoted to the position of Environmental Team Leader in the Officeof Energy and Environment. In his spare time, he is still searching for happiness and the meaning of life, as well as learning to play the doumbek.
Oliver Wilcox (1996) continues working as a Democracy and Governance Advisor for the Middle East and North Africa at USAID. Much of his recent work involves local governance and decentralization in the region. He recently spoke to Professor Samer Shehata’s “‘Reform’ in the Arab World” seminar at CCAS on democracy and governance programming in the contexts of particular countries, regional politics and US foreign policy.
Mathilda Khabbaz (1998) is still in the San Francisco Bay area. In late March she became Vice President at Citibank, working as a business development officer in their commercial real estate division. “I’m really looking forward to this change! I’ve been keeping in touch with fellow Hoyas through the Georgetown Alumni Club of Northern California...although I don’t see many MAASers there.”
Aryah Somers (1999) writes: “I have made a move from Cairo and I have joined the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Florence, Arizona. It is a non profit legal service organization that provides free legal services to men, women and children detained by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), formerly known as the INS. If interested, you can check us out at www.firrp.org.”
“Things are continuing to go well here in Jordan [for Fulbright scholar Charles Kiamie (2004)]. In the past month I’ve taken trips to Qatar, Bahrain, and South Africa. Brendan Geary (2005) and Aja Maddux (2005) visited during spring break, and in Doha I stayed with Shannon McNulty (2004).”
Samuel Blatteis (2006) was selected to go to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in March, 2005 as the youngest member of the delegation from the United States to a conference on US-Saudi Relations. Programmatically, Samuel was a member of several joint working groups comprised of leading Saudi businessmen, intellectuals and members of the US foreign affairs community, including senior US officials, academics, business leaders, and media personalities. The conference was financed by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and supported by the State Department.
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