Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies Program

Expertise: Urban anthropology, infrastructure, religion, youth politics, Islamism, Arabian Peninsula Middle East

Expertise: Qur'anic studies, Islamic studies, early Islamic history, Arabic epigraphy and paleography, philology

Karen is a PhD candidate in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis, where she earned an MA in 2011. She is also a Schusterman fellow at the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. She holds an MA in religion from the University of Georgia and a BA in English and religious studies from the University of Arizona. She teaches courses on Jewish and Israeli history at Brandeis and as a community educator in a variety of settings throughout the Greater Boston area and New York.

Ruth Wyckoff is a senior double majoring in International and Global Studies and History, with minors in Hispanic Studies and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. She returned to her hometown in New Jersey this spring after an incredible, though truncated, study abroad semester in Jordan, where she learned about Refugees, Health, and Humanitarian Action. She is a Waltham Group Coordinator with Prospect Hill Kids' Club, and this fall is starting as a Community Engagement Ambassador for the Department of Community Service. She loves hiking, knitting, and most of all talking, so please don't hesitate to email her with any questions about classes, minoring in IMES, studying abroad, or to make a new friend!