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Staff members with discipline Area Studies

Academia develops at the interface of different fields. This is one reason why the University of Groningen is home to a wide range of fields, each with a great number of subject specialists. The overview below, which is based on a standard categorization of fields, will help you find the right expert for each field. If you cannot find the expert you are looking for in this list, try searching via a related field or faculty; you may find him or her there.

Overview of all disciplines

I am a historian working on the cultural and intellectual history of the modern Middle East. I am broadly interested in the history of the Nahda, historiography, and Arabic literature. My disseration, lying at the intersection of Middle Eastern Studies and Jewish studies, examined the Arabic Jewish press in the Middle East during the 1930s and '40s and studies the ideas and intellectual networks of its editors and contributors. 
L.E. (Lucia) Admiraal, PhD
Contact
l.e.admiraal rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Field / Discipline
- State-socialist and post-socialist architecture and urbanism
- Architecture and urban planning in East-Central Europe and the Balkans
- Islamic cultural and urban heritage in twentieth- and twenty-first century
- Post-disaster and post-war urban reconstruction
---------- Dr Babic's scholarship explores the intersection of architecture and ideology during the state-socialist and post-socialist periods in East-Central and Southeastern Europe, with a particualr focus on former Yugoslavia. She examines the intertwined nature of architectural production, urban planning, and socio-political events in the state-socialist countries of the twentieth century and the socio-political and architectural developments in contemporary post-communist Europe. Her current work investigates the production and negotiations of urban identities in post-socialist spaces, particularly focusing on state socialist housing estates and urban monuments.  
M. (Maja) Babic, PhD
Contact
m.babic rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism
Anthropology of Islam, everyday religion, pilgrimage studies,  migration & Identity, Muslims in diaspora, Dialogical Self Theory, biographical Research
prof. dr. M.W. (Marjo) Buitelaar
Contact
m.w.buitelaar rug.nl
+31 50 36 35570
Function
Professor of Contemporary Islam
Field / Discipline
Social-economic History, Europe since 1750, European Regional Development. The Netherlands and its regions, Historical Network Analysis, Public History.
prof. dr. M.G.J. (Maarten G J) Duijvendak
Contact
m.g.j.duijvendak rug.nl
+31 50 36 35994
Function
Professor emeritus of Economic, Social & Regional History
F. (Frank) Gaenssmantel, PhD
Contact
f.gaenssmantel rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
My main areas of interest are: democracy and authoritarianism; the European Union and the Eastern Partnership; and post-Soviet politics.   
dr. E.E.A. (Eske) van Gils
Contact
e.e.a.van.gils rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
As a researcher, my primary interest is the modern history of Jewish communities in the Islamic world and their responses to modernity. From a methodological standpoint I consider myself a historian, and as such the majority of my research is based on archival material and historic press in English, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, dating from the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. My current research rethinks the connection between transnational solidarity organizations and empire. The focus is on the centrality and agency of non-European elites, thereby challenging assumptions about the center and the periphery within colonial networks.
S.R. (Sasha) Goldstein, PhD
Contact
s.r.goldstein rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor
Field / Discipline
prof. dr. T. (Tialda) Haartsen
Contact
t.haartsen rug.nl
Function
Professor of Rural Geography
Field / Discipline
From a combined background in Languages and Cultures of the Middle East (Arabic) and Translation Studies, I study literary, ideological and ideational exchanges between Western Europe and the Arabic Middle East; modern Arabic literature; literary translations; history and poetics of translation in the Middle East.
H. (Hisham) Hamad, MA
Contact
h.hamad rug.nl
Function
Lecturer
Modern history and international relations  of East Asia ( in particular related to Japan); history and historiography of colonialism, imperialism and globalisation; European political culture and political history ( 19th-21st century) with special attention to the role of the press.
prof. dr. J. (Janny) de Jong
Contact
janny.de.jong rug.nl
+31 50 36 36021
Function
Professor Europe-East Asia Relations, with a focus on Japan;Director of Studies Erasmus Mundus Master Euroculture: Society, Politics and Culture in a Global Context
Field / Discipline
Archaeology and Anthropology of Circumpolar Peoples and Cultures
prof. P.D. (Peter) Jordan, PhD
Contact
p.d.jordan rug.nl
Function
I am a sociologist specialized in the making of memories and heritage work in the Middle East and North Africa. My research interests analyze memorial practices, social movements, and racialization in the Modern MENA region. I lecture on political sociology, cultures studies, and sociology of international relations.
M.M.S. (Mayada) Madbouly, PhD
Contact
m.m.s.madbouly rug.nl
Function
Coloniality/Decolonialism
Latino politics
Texas history, culture and politics
Religion in American culture and politics
The U.S.-Mexico borderlands
Mexican American history, politics and culture
U.S. Catholic history
U.S.-Mexico relations
A.M. (Anne) Martinez, Dr
Contact
a.m.martinez rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor, American Political Theory and Culture (tenured)
Middle East
Conflicts, terrorism, jihadism
Religion and violence
Media and propaganda
dr. P.G.T. (Pieter) Nanninga
Contact
p.g.t.nanninga rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor Middle Eastern Studies
Field / Discipline
E.A. (Erik) Olsen, PhD
Contact
e.a.olsen rug.nl
Function
African history (particularly Zambia, South Africa, and Nigeria); environmental history; social history; oral history. I study the environmental history of mining and oil drilling in Africa. My aim is to explain why people respond differently to severe pollution and environmental degradation. To answer these questions, I rely on oral history, literary analysis, political ecology, and approaches from art studies. Besides being the coordinator of the MA History track Un/Sustainable Societies in Past, Present, and Future, I am a member of the Faculty Council of Arts and the chair of the Young Arts Network (YARN) for 2022-2023.
I. (Iva) Pesa, PhD
Contact
i.pesa rug.nl
Function
Assistant Professor Contemporary History
Rural Development
Community Development
Cultural Geography
Social Exclusion
dr. K. (Koen) Salemink
Contact
k.salemink rug.nl
+31 50 36 35704
Function
Assistant Professor
Field / Discipline
I am a historian of the Modern Middle East. My research and teaching interests include Christian Arab communities of and in the Middle East Middle East, a relational cultural and social history of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine, and minorities in/ diaspora from the Middle East. I am particularly interested in engaging with multilateral transnational connections, still understudied in favour of national historiographies and periodisation.
K.M.J. (Karène) Sanchez-Summerer, Prof Dr
Contact
karene.sanchez rug.nl
Function
Professor and Chair Middle Eastern studies
Field / Discipline
Politics and religion, with a particular focus on Sunni politics and political opposition in Iraq and Egypt.  My current research project (2023-2024), funded by an NWO Open Competitie SGW XS grant, focuses on the reconstruction of the Iraqi city of Mosul from an Iraqi and a Dutch perspective. I focus on reconstruction projects in Mosul by conducting fieldwork and by studying secondary literature and policy reports. Specifically, I look at the political and religious context in which this takes place and the extent to which this complex context of international actors and (local) sectarian politics affects the efficiency and sustainability of the reconstruction efforts.  For my previous projects, I focused on the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood under the rules of Sadat and Mubarak. My studies have always been primarily based on Arabic journals and newspapers, sources, which proved to be of great relevance for new insights into the movement’s mentality history in the build-up to the events of January 2011 and, in a broader sense, the development of Islamism and political Islam in Egypt and beyond.

 In August 2020 my book titled Imagining the Perfect Society in Muslim Brotherhood Journals was published by De Gruyter.
dr. K.M. (Kiki) Santing
Contact
k.m.santing rug.nl
+31 50 36 35820
Function
Assistant Professor Middle Eastern Studies
postcolonial theory, diaspora studies, memory studies, life writing, Middle East studies
No picture available
Contact
a.sathananthar rug.nl
Function
Moroccan Jewish History and Migration
R. (Roy Orel) Shukrun
Contact
r.shukrun rug.nl
Function
PhD student
Field / Discipline
European integration and institutions
State theory and institutionalism
Concept analysis and qualitative methods
Italian politics
P.D. (Pier Domenico) Tortola, PhD
Contact
p.d.tortola rug.nl
Function
Associate professor (UHD)
International strategy and policy advice
International relations management
drs. T.N. (Tim) Zwaagstra
Contact
t.n.zwaagstra rug.nl
+31 6 8152 1318
Function
Senior Policy Advisor Southeast Asia
Regional Identity, Rural History, U.S. Politics, U.S. History, History of the U.S. South, Political Culture, American Studies, Southern Studies, Civil Rights Movement, U.S. Civil War.
dr. M. (Maarten) Zwiers
Contact
m.zwiers rug.nl
Function
Senior Lecturer
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