Who We Are
Kristina Cherniahivsky, Associate Director
Cherniahivsky managed the International Security Program at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University from 1997-2000. She previously worked in Eastern Europe on issues of democracy and civil society.
Shai Feldman, Judith and Sidney Swartz Director
Before joining the Crown Center, Feldman served from 1997 to 2005 as head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. He also serves on the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and as a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. From 2001 to 2003, he served as a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters. The author of numerous publications, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Short C.V.
Nader Habibi, Henry J. Leir Professor of the Economics of the Middle East
Before joining the Crown Center in 2007 Habibi was Managing Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division in Global Insight. He is a regional economist with concentration on Middle East and North Africa. His recent research projects have focused on operations of sovereign wealth funths in Arab Countries and US-Arab economic relations. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and a graduate degree in systems engineering from Michigan State University and has worked as a research fellow at the Middle East Council at Yale University..
Marilyn R. Horowitz, Senior Department Associate
Horowitz is a native of New York City and now lives in Waltham, MA. She is an avid photographer, designs jewelry, is a member of the Dog Writers Association of America (her 2007 Sunnybank Calendar won the Calendar Category of the 2006 DWAA Writing Contest), and has a monthly column in a professional Collie publication with national circulation.
Kanan Makiya, Faculty Chair
The Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University, Baghdad-born Makiya wrote Republic of Fear, which became a bestseller after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991.
Benjamin Rostoker, Program Coordinator
Rostoker received his B.A. and M.A. in Politics from Brandeis University in 2005. He has worked with conflict resolution programs and organizations including: the Israeli Palestinian Negotiating Partners; Middle East Education through Technology; and Mercy Corps Conflict Management Group. In 2007, Rostoker was a teaching and research assistant at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel.
Abdel Monem Said Aly, Senior Fellow
The chairman of the Al-Ahram Establishment in Cairo, Said Aly is a regular contributor to the Al-Ahram Daily newspaper and a frequent commentator on political affairs for Egyptian and Arab television. Said Aly was a distinguished visiting fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., in 2004. He was also a research fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University in 2003. He founded the International Alliance for Arab-Israeli Peace and the Egyptian Peace Movement.
Yezid Sayigh, Senior Fellow
Sayigh is Professor of Middle East Studies at King's College London. Previously he was Assistant Director of Studies at the Centre of International Studies, Cambridge University (1994-2003), and headed the Middle East program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London (1998-2003). In 1990-1994 he was an advisor to and negotiator for the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks with Israel, and since 1999 has provided policy and technical consultancy on the permanent status peace talks and on Palestinian reform.
Khalil Shikaki, Senior Fellow
Shikaki has directed the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah since 2000, and has conducted more than one hundred polls among Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since 1993. A world-renowned expert on Palestinian public opinion and a widely published author, he has taught at several institutions, including Birzeit University, An-Najah National University, the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, and the University of South Florida. He also was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., in 2002.
Naghmeh Sohrabi, Assistant Director for Research
Sohrabi was a postdoctoral fellow at the Crown Center from 2005-2007. She received her Ph.D. in history and Middle East studies from Harvard University in 2005. Her dissertation received an honorable mention from the Foundation for Iranian Studies. Sohrabi is currently completing her book manuscript on 19th century Persian travelers to Europe. She has taught courses at Harvard University, Skidmore College, and most recently at Brandeis.
Asher Susser, Senior Fellow on the Myra and Robert Kraft Chair in Arab PoliticsSusser was Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies at Tel Aviv University from 2001 to 2007, and was previously Director from 1989 to 1995. He is one of Israel’s leading experts on Jordan and the Palestinians. Prof. Susser was the only Israeli academic invited by Prime Minister Rabin to join him and King Hussein at their historic appearance before the U.S. Congress. A graduate of Tel Aviv University, where he earned his Ph.D. (1986), Susser has been a Fulbright Fellow, a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, and Brandeis University.