2025 Paper Presentations

Below is a list of anticipated presentations at the Eighteenth Annual ASMEA Conference. More will be added.

A Comradeship-in-Arms? East German-Angolan Military Relations during the Cold War, 1975-1990
(Dr. Jochen Arndt, Virginia Military Institute)

A New Perspective on the Impact of Structural and Cultural Shifts on Syrian Refugee Families in Germany
(Ms. Elena Nassif, Georgetown University)

Adaptation and Persistence of Authoritarian Regimes in Africa: The Case of Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni
(Dr. Curthberth Onek, Millersville University)

Ambivalence in Contemporary Sunni — A Challenge for Western Liberal Democracies?
(Prof. Felipe Pathé Duarte, NOVA University of Lisbon, NOVA School of Law)

America in Turkish-Islamist Thinking: The Case of Sebil
(Dr. Tuba Unlu Bilgic, University of St. Thomas)

Antisemitism as a Subject of General Discussion: Gatekeepers Say NO
(Prof. Liah Greenfeld, Retired)

Attitudes towards Jews in Japan
(Dr. Chikako Takeishi, Chuo University)

Balancing Ideology and Pragmatism: Hezbollah's Transition to Attrition Warfare in Its Conflict with Israel
(Dr. Dan Naor, Ariel University)

Between Empire and Development: Arthur Hugh Bunting and the East African Groundnuts Scheme, 1947-1951
(Dr. Joseph Hodge, West Virginia University)

Beyond Resources: The Role of Faith and Identity in Shaping Eastern Mediterranean Energy Conflicts
(Mr. Mustafa Burak Sener, Eötvös Loránd University)

“Blow 'Em All Away”: Rape, Race, and Reprisal in North Africa
(Prof. R.M. Douglas, Colgate University)

Breaking the Barriers: Turkey and Israel in Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean
(Dr. Omri Eilat, University of Haifa)

Brides of the South: Hafez al-Assad's Embrace of Female Suicide Bombers in 1985
(Dr. Joel Parker, Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies)

Cemetery as a dwelling place: Architecture, spacecraft, and burial grounds in Colonial Onitsha Province, Nigeria
(Mr. Mathias Isiani, University of California, Berkeley)

Charles de Gaulle in Beirut
(Prof. Franck Salameh, Boston College)

City of Discontent: The Urban Underbelly in Pre-Revolutionary Iranian Popular Cinema
(Dr. Golbarg Rekabtalaei, Seton Hall University)

Cocoa in the Gold Coast (Ghana): Indigenous Agency, Colonial Policy, and Foreign Trade Networks in an Evolving Global Economy, 1859—1957
(Mr. Maxwell Asabere, West Virginia University)

Color Capital: Sociocultural Influences of Skin Bleaching Practices Among Nigerian Women
(Ms. Ruth Emmanuel, University of Cincinnati)

Contemporary Muslim Antisemitism as a Political Ideology
(Prof. Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University)

David Ben-Gurion and Nahum Goldmann on Israel's Strategic Situation in 1958
(Prof. Neil Rogachevsky, University of Florida)

Dealing with Artisanal Oil refining: Social Relationships and Governance of Oil in Nigeria's Niger Delta
(Ms. Esther Egele-Godswill, University of Edinburgh)

Delegitimizing Israel: the Theological Roots of Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity
(Prof. Ilan Troen, Ben Gurion University, Brandeis University)

Democratic Resilience Vs. Democratic Backsliding: A Tale of Two Nations in Times of Political Instability and Insecurity
(Ms. Deborah Sike, University of Pittsburgh)

Echoes of War: Comparing Kenyan and Tanzanian Reactions to the October 7 Attack and the Israel-Hamas Conflict
(Dr. Asher Lubotzky, University of Houston)

Emerging Actors and Democratization in Lusophone Africa
(Prof. Alvaro Nobrega, University of Lisbon)

Engineering Metabolism: Women, Salt Technologies, and Wartime Science in Biafra
(Mr. Odinaka Eze, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Examining the Contribution of Domestic Workers to Work-Family Balance Among Dual-Earner Families in Nairobi City, Kenya
(Ms. Sussie Mutahi, Strathmore Law School)

Explaining the 2022-2023 Protest Movement in Iran: Internal Migration and Ethnic Identity
(Mrs. Nasrin Haghighat Chaleshtari, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee)

Femigritude Expression of Colonialism's Lasting Legacy and Gendered Power Dynamics in Postcolonial African
(Mrs. Diweng Dafong, University of Alabama)

Feminism Behind the Veil: Coptic Orthodox Nuns and the Politics of Female Piety in Contemporary Egypt
(Dr. Rosemary Dawood, Abu Dhabi University)

Framing Terrorism for Political Survival: Populist Securitization Strategies in Turkey
(Ms. Büşra Özyüksel, University of Szeged)

From Kinship to Condemnation: Rejection, Emotion, and the Qur’an and Sīra’s Rhetoric Against the Jews
(Dr. Tim Orr, The Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture - Indiana University, Indianapolis)

From Recovery to Reckoning: Feminist Hermeneutics and the Qur'an
(Prof. Seth Cantey, Washington and Lee University)

From Soft Power to Hard Power: The Psychoanalytical Dimension of Turkey's Foreign Policy Under the AKP
(Dr. Senem Cevik, Woodbury University)

Geopolitics of Bypassing: Role of Trade Corridors in Shaping Iran's Sanctioned Economy
(Dr. Shameer Modongal, American University)

Give Peace a Chance: Could the Yom Kippur War have been Prevented? Hafez Ismail's Talks with the Americans in 1973: A Case Study
(Dr. Yehuda Blanga, Bar-Ilan University)

Governing the Periphery: Ethnic and Sectarian Autonomy in Post Assad Syria
(Mr. Yahya Zarrinnarges Gooyaghaj, Wayne State University)

Guillotining the political
(Ms. Shirley Le Penne, Cornell University)

Harsh Punishments and the Criminal Justice System of Iran: Between Judicial Corporal Punishment and Penal Alternatives
(Dr. Sanaz Alasti, Lamar University)

Hejab Strikers: The History and the Relationship between Women's Soccer and National Identity in Iran
(Mrs. Yuval Shoval, Ariel University)

Henrique Rosa: Insights and Reflections on his Time in Office
(Dr. Nathaniel Cogley, Tarleton State University)

In Defense of Lebanon: The Special Relationship Between Rashid Karami and Syria (from 1976 until 1987)
(Dr. Zach Battat)

Iran and the Israel Hamas War: Ideological Commitments and Strategic Setbacks
(Prof. Meir Litvak, Alliance Center for Iranian Studies, TAU)

Iskoki Ne… Ko Taa Tabu: Culture, Silence, and Perinatal Distress in Ghana’s Zango Communities
(Ms. Balkisa Sissy, University of Cincinnati)

Islamism and Islam: Examination of the Issues in Reports of Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (the Verfassungsschutzberichte) and in German Politics, 1998-2008
(Prof. Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland, College Park)

Islamist Protests Against Israel in Muslim-Majority Countries: Grievance Competition, Economic Shocks, and Protest History
(Dr. Brandon Ives, Seoul National University)

Israeli Conceptions and the Role of Open-Source Intelligence: Between the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 2023 Hamas Attack
(Dr. Jonathan Franco, Moshe Dayan Center, Tel Aviv University)

Israeli Society from Social Unrest to War in Gaza
(Dr. Eyal Lewin, Ariel University)

Italy and the Algerian Décennie Noire: European Dynamics, Energy Security, and the Diplomacy of Pacification (1988–2003)
(Prof. Flavia De Lucia Lumeno, Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano)

Jihadist violence as a war between good and evil: the case of Boko Haram in Nigeria
(Dr. Sabina Brakoniecka, University of Warsaw)

#MahsaAmini (#مهساامینی) and #ZanZendegiAzadi (#زن_زندگی_آزادی) forming a new discourse of feminism and women’s right among Iranian users
(Ms. Atousa Kaviani, State University of New York at Binghamton)

Mapping Leila Abouzeid’s The Last Chapter from Islam, Gender and Education Nexus
(Dr. Amrita Basu Roy Chowdhury, Lady Brabourne College)

Moral Exhibitionism and the Right to Kill Jews
(Prof. Franck Salameh, Boston College)

Morocco's Place in Africa
(Mr. Caleb Griffin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Navigating a Shifting Middle East: Nationalism, Islamism, and the Future of Regional Order
(Dr. Liora Lukitz, Independent Scholar)

North Korea's Role in October 7th Violence and Beyond: Lessons Learned for Future Containment of Proliferation in the Middle East
(Bruce Bechtol, Angelo State University)

Ottoman Participation in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
(Prof. Semih Gökatalay, Virginia Military Institute)

“Our Government is a Threat to our life": Health Material-Semiotic Indeterminacy and Citizens' Response to the Impact of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Nigeria
(Mr. Ebenezer Adeyemi, University of Iowa)

Out of Her League: Israel and the risk of a confrontation with a Global Great power
(Dr. Or Honig, University of Florida)

Palestinian Hunger Strikes and the Israeli Security Dilemma
(Dr. Ido Zelkovitz, Yezreel Valley College)

Paper Barriers, Temporal Borders: Kurdish Experiences of the I-485 Process and the Governance of Waiting
(Mr. Stephen Fox, University of Kentucky)

Post-October 7 Weaponization of Just War Theory: Russia's Strategic Use of Human Rights Rhetoric in the Middle East
(Dr. Robert Nalbandov, Angelo State University)

Pre-October 7 Academic Research on Hamas: Conceptual Fixation and Wishful Thinking
(Prof. Avraham Sela, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Proximity to Atrocity of Two Jewish Soldiers: The Holocaust, the October 7th War & the Role of Art
(Rabbi Jessica Spitalnic Mates, Florida Atlantic University)

Translation in Cold Peace: The Mediation of Israeli Literatures in Egypt
(Dr. Limor Lavie, Bar-Ilan University)

Repercussions of Blacklisting: The Case of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia
(Mr. Wael Benali, University of Central Florida)

Rethinking The Lebanese Civil War in Light of Declassified Archival Sources: Israel, the U.S., the Gemayel Brothers, and Walid Jumblatt
(Prof. Hicham Bou Nassif, Claremont McKenna College)

Revolution of the Deprived: Relative Deprivation and the Roots of the 1979 Iranian Uprising
(Ms. Richa Bhattarai, Kennesaw State University)

Saint Veneration in Eastern Thrace: Sacred Groves and Gender Dynamics in Alevi-Bektaşi Tradition
(Dr. Hakki Gurkas, Kennesaw State University)

Salafism, Medical Pluralism and Religious Performance in the Nigerian Public Sphere
(Mr. Ridwan Balogun, Florida State University)

Scholars' Purview of Ethiopian History
(Dr. Mengesha Endalew, Texas Tech University)

Scottish Missionaries and Development Agenda in the Post-War Era: From the Civilizing Mission to Development Agenda
(Ms. Eunice M'biya, West Virginia University)

Sino-Arab Nation-building and Cultural Decolonization on Cultural Diplomacy 1955-1966
(Ms. Ying Huang, Beijing International Studies University, University of Exeter)

Sites of Control, Spaces of Resistance: Mau Mau Insurgency, Carceral Geography and Memory in Kenya, 1948-1963
(Mr. Stiffin Kamande, West Virginia University)

Sub-Saharan Responses to the Gaza-Israel War
(Prof. Bill Miles, Northeastern University)

The Appointment of Women in Religious Judicial Systems in Iran
(Mrs. Sarah Zilberberg, Ariel University)

“The Arab-Israelite conquest”: Biblical models and the historiography of the Arab-Islamic expansion
(Dr. D Gershon Lewental, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Hebrew University)

The Continuity and Discontinuity of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi’s Influence upon Fethullah Gülen’s Descriptions of Tyrants
(Dr. Thomas Messick, Australian University of Theology)

The Critical Role of Women in Peace-Building – The Israeli and the Palestinian Peace Movements Model
(Dr. Pnina Shuker, Shalem College and University of South Wales)

The Deep State in Egypt: The Politics of a Concept in the Post-Revolutionary Era
(Dr. Bosmat Yefet, Ariel University)

The Dynamics of Religious Radicalization and Ethnic Identities in the Central African Republic: A Focus on the Seleka Rebels and Anti-Balaka Militias
(Dr. Abdel Salam Aretouyap, University of Buea)

The Fatimid-era Well at al-Jāmiʿ al-Anwar: Revisiting Islamic Architectural Philanthropy in the Middle East and Africa.
(Mr. Murtaza Mustafa Shakir, Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah)

The Impact of the US—China's Global Competition on the Middle East Stability
(Dr. Ahmed Zohny, Coppin State University)

The Implications of the exit of the Sahelian States from ECOWAS
(Dr. Emmanuel Obuah, Tuskegee University)

The Intersection of Faith and Feminism: Portrayal of Islam, Women and Patriarchy in Hausa Films and Literature
(Mr. Nura Abubakar, Ohio University)

“The Israeli 9/11": Arab Media discourse on October 7 and September 11 terror attacks — Comparative Analysis
(Dr. Tom Sharon, Moshe Dayan Center (MDC), Tel Aviv University)

The Lebanese Shi'ite in the Modern Era, in the Trap of Identities
(Mrs. Noa Riven, Ariel University, Israel)

The Lived Experience: Soviet Assistance to African Militaries
(Dr. Whitney Grespin, Joint Special Operations University)

The Melted Pot: Diversity, Antisemitism, and the Limits of Tolerance
(Mr. Harry Saul Markham)

The Miami Interfaith Model for Jewish Muslim Dialogue Post-October 7th
(Prof. Iqbal Akhtar, Florida International University)

The Muslim Kurdish Peshmerga: Ideology, Militia Structure, and Role in the Suppression of Kurdish Autonomy in Iran
(Dr. Fateh Saeidi, University of Texas at Austin)

The News Media as Vehicles of for disseminating Jihadi Jew-Hatred: Lessons of October 7 and beyond.
(Prof. Richard Landes)

The Omu's Vanishing Realm: Gender, Colonial Legacies, and the Unmaking of Indigenous Market Governance in Anioma, Nigeria, 1910 — 2015
(Mr. Sopuruchukwu Nwadi, West Virginia University)

The Palestinization of Human Rights: Al Haq and HRW as Templates
(Prof. Gerald Steinberg, Bar-Ilan University)

The Palestinization of Human Rights: Lessons from October 7 and Beyond
(Prof. Gerald Steinberg, Bar-Ilan University)

The Salafi Jihadi Conception of the State
(Dr. Daniel Joseph Lav, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

The Symbiosis of the Religious and National Militias' Power to Political Power During the Fight for Democracy in Iraq, 2003—2024
(Prof. Ronen A. Cohen, Ariel University)

The Syrian Spoiler: Undoing the May 17th Accords 1983-1984
(Dr. Jesse Weinberg, Institute for National Security Studies [INSS], Tel Aviv University)

The Unique Case of Saudi Arabia: State Development and Foreign Policy Decisions
(Dr. Ilias Tasopoulos, University of Peloponnese)

The US - KRG Partnership and the Challenges of the Peshmerga Forces Unification after the ISIS Era
(Dr. Karzan Ali, Sulaimani University)

The Utopian of Syrian Nationalism: Insurmountable Obstacles
(Dr. Gadi Hitman, Ariel University)

Thinking about Hiroshima in Baghdad: On a Forgotten Iraqi Short Story in the Aftermath of WWII
(Dr. Hilla Peled-Shapira, Ariel University and Bar-Ilan University)

Unyielding Complexity of the Middle East: A Perspective of Political Science and Security Studies
(Prof. Boris Havel, University of Zagreb)

Velleity, Exigency, and Expediency: British Policy in Southern Kurdistan 1918-1921
(Prof. George L. Simpson, High Point University [ret.])

What is the Deep State?
(Dr. Luis Fleischman, Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research/ Palm Beach State College)

William Howard Taft, Dollar Diplomacy, and the Question of Iran (1909-1913)
(Dr. Hossein Abadian, University of Arkansas)

Zaydism and Ansar Allah (Huthi Movement): Doctrinal Continuity, or Ideological Transformation? (2014-2025)
(Prof. Felipe Medina Gutierrez, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana)