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MAAS Alumni: Hashem, Rabbani, Al-Tikriti, Singh, Singh, Fitch, Lehmann, Chambers, Emerson, Longstreth, DeLong-Bas, Paliga, Schmitt, Hattar, Joseph, Keller, Omar, Davoudit, Zander, Jorgensen, Boutz, Kiamie, Steinitz, Chaker, Hill, Dupont, Carr, Achrati, Bl
Published in 2006
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Amal Arab Hashem (1983) will sit for her oral examination in June 2006 after submitting her completed dissertation on “Saudi Women and Political Involvement in the Informal Sphere” to the University of Exeter.
Mouin Rabbani (1988) has been working with the International Crisis Group as a
Middle East Analyst specializing in Palestinian Affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict since 2002. She is based in Amman, Jordan.
Nabil Al-Tikriti (Undergraduate MAAS certificate, 1988) and Ranjit Singh (1992)
are currently professors at the University of Mary Washington. Al-Tikriti is an Assistant Professor of Middle East History and Singh is an Assistant Professor of
Middle East Politics.
Mia Bloom (1991) has accepted a position at the University of Georgia in the School for International Affairs. She is also working on her forthcoming book
entitled Gendercide: Raping to Win.
Laurie Fitch (1994) was recently promoted to Managing Director and Head of
European Equity Research at TIAA-CREF; in addition, she manages TIAA-CREF’s
Global Utilities and Telecom portfolio.
Scott Lehmann (1994) reports “I am still in Madrid but in February I decided to
leave Microsoft and start, with several others, a new company called IQbate (www.
iqbate.com). We provide “acceleration” for innovative, promising seed and early stage companies, especially those in emerging markets, through a combination
of investment, hands on management assistance and sales and marketing execution to help them penetrate global markets (primarily EMEA and North America).”
David Chambers (1988) published in The Los Angeles Times in February 2006 and a feature article for Saudi Aramco World Magazine in March 2006. He was also interviewed by Arab Radio & Television recently. In addition, he continues his work with the Kennedy Center which has offered numerous Arab performances. He
encourages fellow alumni to get in touch with him about attending Kennedy Center
performances.
Paola Emerson (1991) is currently in Cote d’Ivoire working for the UN on elections. She reports “After so many years working abroad, including a very challenging bit in Indonesia right after the tsunami, I am getting ready to spend the Summer in Portugal to where all friends are invited− paolaemerson@yahoo.com.”
Rebecca Longstreth (1991) has returned to America after spending 2 years in Benin as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Before leaving Benin she married Idriss Adam, who plans to join her stateside as soon as he gets his visa. She is currently taking courses at the University of Maryland and plans to go to nursing school.
Natana J. DeLong-Bas's (1993) new book, Notable Muslims: Muslim Builders of World Civilization and Culture, was released from OneWorld Publications. She reports that the first shipment to the US has already sold out. Natana continues to teach Islamic Studies and Theology at Boston College and Brandeis University.
Thorsten Paliga (1996) and Alyssa Schmitt (1995) are currently living in Germany where Thorsten works for Bosch. Alyssa is currently on maternity leave with the couple’s second daughter, Chaira; their first daughter, Maria, is now four. They also bought a house last year in Karlsruhe.
Talal Hattar (1998) and his partner Craig Rock had a commitment ceremony on September 25, 2005 in Seattle. He also defended his prospectus in March and is finally ABD!
Paul Joseph (1999) married Melissa Chen on May 13th, 2006. Paul and Melissa live in the Washington area where Paul currently works for Sprint International.
Steve Keller (2000) recently relocated to Palestine to begin working as the Country Director for AMIDEAST/West Bank-Gaza.
Manal Omar (2001) accepted a job with Oxfam as Regional Program Manager for
MENA and will be moving to Oxford in May.
Salamander Davoudit (2002) reports “I am still working with the Financial Times. I was covering the Pentagon and some foreign policy issues in the Middle East. Now I am back in the UK and concentrating on finance—predominantly FTSE 100 companies. Send any good stories my way! I can be contacted at Salamander.
Davoudi@ft.com.”
Kim Zander (2002) accepted a new post with Save the Children-Sweden, to be their Country Manager for West Bank and Gaza. He reports “I am truly looking forward to returning to Jerusalem and Palestine after having spent a few years back home in Sweden.”
Kari Jorgensen (2003) married Obie Diener on October 15, 2005 in Harrisonburg,
VA. The couple lives in Washington, DC, where Kari continues to work as a Program
Officer with CHF International.
Gary Boutz (2004) was awarded a US Department of State Critical Language
Scholarship and will be spending the summer studying Arabic in Sana’a, Yemen.
Charles Kiamie III (2004) married Rasha Al-Ali, a Palestinian-Jordanian geneticist, in Amman on December 15, 2005. Charles is working on his PhD dissertation in Georgetown’s Department of Government in addition to teaching comparative and Middle East politics at Georgetown, George Washington, and Lockheed-Mart.
Chris Steinitz (2004) graduated with the first class to complete Georgetown
University’s Certificate in Advanced Proficiency in Arabic (CAPA) in May.
Rachid Chaker (2005) accepted a position in the US Department of State in the
Middle East Division.
Three MAAS students will be off to Cairo this summer to continue their Arabic study at the prestigious CASA program: Jennifer Hill (2004), Ebie Dupont
(2006) and current student, Rafael Carr (2008).
Nora Achrati (2006) won a first prize for Graduate Student Papers at the Phi
Alpha Theta history honors society mid-Atlantic regional history conference this
past April.
Sam Blatteis (2007), a current Fulbright Fellow in the Gulf, was recently interviewed by both the New York Times and Forbes Magazine.
Katherine Pitsch (2007) represented the School for Foreign Service and MAAS program at the first annual Georgetown/SFSJohn’sHopkins/SAIS Debate. The topic was “US hegemony is good for the world.” The Georgetown-SFS team, which argu against this thesis, was deemed the winner.
David M. DeBartolo (2009) a joint MAASJD student received a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Jordan on political reform, economic development and the rule of law. He will be in Amman from September 2006 through spring 2007 and is interested in meeting MAAS alumni/ae in the area. Please contact him at dmd37@georgetown.edu.
Katherine Dunne (2009), a joint MAASJD student, was selected for a Critical
Language Scholarship to study Turkish in Istanbul this summer.
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