Hometown: Albany, New York
Research Interests: Historical studies, Arab Americans, social movements, comparative civil rights, trauma and memory.
Elle graduated summa cum laude from Whitman College, where she double-majored in Politics and South Asian & Middle Eastern Studies with a minor in History and a Global Studies concentration. Elle additionally spent two terms studying at the University of Oxford (St. Anne’s College) and is a two-time recipient of a Critical Language Scholarship for Arabic. At CCAS, Elle’s research focuses on Arab and Arab-American labor organizing during the 1960s-1990s; she is particularly interested in how labor activism intersected with contemporary social movements and contributed to interethnic coalition-building. Elle has an abiding interest in Latin American studies, particularly on LATAM-MENA relations. She is currently working on research that examines intellectual exchanges between Latin American and Middle Eastern revolutionary groups during the Long 1960s. Elle’s previous work has examined identity formation and spatial resistance among refugee populations in southern Lebanon, neocolonialism in U.S. humanitarian aid regimes, and eco-apartheid in Palestine.
During her undergraduate studies, Elle served as a research assistant for faculty in the History, Religion, and Politics departments. She currently serves as a graduate research assistant for Dr. Marwa Daoudy (CCAS) and as an Engaged Scholarship and Pedagogy intern with Dr. Arjun Shankar (CULP) through Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service.
Outside of the formal classroom, Elle has had the privilege of learning from various activists and community leaders. Elle has co-labored with various anti-poverty and mutual aid organizations, anti-war and abolition collectives, and immigrant rights groups; she looks forward to continuing this work alongside her academic learning.