History of the SSA
Past Officers
Presidents
2016-2017
Hilary Kalmbach
Lecturer in Middle Eastern History
University of Sussex
Brighton, United Kingdom
2014-2015
Keith David Watenpaugh
Associate Professor
Modern Islam, Human Rights & Peace
University of California
Davis, California
2012-2013
Joshua Landis
Associate Professor
Middle East Studies
University of Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
2010-2011
Fred H. Lawson,
Professor, Rice Chair
Mills College
5000 MacArthur Bl.
Oakland, CA 94613
2006-2009
Peter Sluglett, Professor
Office: 214 C Hall History,
Carlson Hall
380 S 1400 East Rm211
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
2003-2005
Dawn Chatty
Deputy Director of the Refugee Studies Centre (Queen Elizabeth House) Oxford
2001-2003
Randi Deguilhem,
Tenured Researcher
CNRS, IREMAM, MMSH, University of Provence
5 rue du château de l'horloge BP 647 FRANCE
telephone: 33 (0)4 42 52 41 67
fax: 33 (0)4 42 52 43 72
1999-2001
Birgit Schäbler
Prof. Dr. Universität Erfurt,
Lehrstuhl für Westasiatische Geschichte
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
Sekretar. 0361/737-4410
Durchwahl 737-4441
Fax 0361/737-4419
1993- 1999
Linda Schilcher: Founder
of the SSA
(Jim Quilty remembers that Linda first discussed forming the SSA
at the Portland MESA. We are not sure if that was in 1991 or 92?)
Randi D. remembers "Linda talking about founding a Syria Studies
Group when she was in Aix in 1992 - it was first called that until
1995 or 1996 when the general meeting voted to change its name to
Association instead of Group. I think that the group was established
in 1993."
Linda Schilcher writes from California (Dec. 2003) that: "The idea to form the Syrian Study Group came a long while back from Dunning Wilson, UCLA ME Bibliographer, as expressed to me and Alistair Drysdale, informally. I thought it over, and once settled in at Villanova, decided to have a first "meeting" at the next MESA. About 12 showed up for that and the "Syrian Studies Group" was officially founded, to have its annual meetings at each MESA, to be international, non-political, scholarly, etc.. The initial goals were modest: to have a forum for (usually) isolated Syrianists all over the world, a NEWSLETTER, at least one sponsored-panel at MESA every year, and maybe some prizes. It grew from there, with a lot of secretarial support from Villanova University's Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, and a great first NEWSLETTER editor in Jill Schwedler, then a grad. student at NYU. The rest of the work was done over the phone, thanks to a generous phone budget, again, from Villanova."
Newsletter Editor
2014-2016
Andrea Stanton
Religious Studies
University of Denver
Denver, Colorado
2007-2010
Steve Tamari
Department of Historical Studies, Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville
2003-2007
Elyse Semerdjian
Dept. of Hist.,
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, USA.
2001-2003
Geoffrey Schad
Univ. of Texas
2000-2001
Joshua
Landis
University of Oklahoma
1996-97
Jim Quilty,
journalist with the Daily Star in Beirut
Treasurer
2013-2014
Stacy Fahrenthold
Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts
2011-2012
Zayde Antrim
Associate Professor of History
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
2008-2010
Geoffrey Schad
Albright College, Reading, Pennsylvania
2007-2008
Annie C. Higgins
Assistant Professor, Arabic Literature, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan
2001-2006
Sherry Vatter
Assistant Professor, California State University,Long Beach
1995 to 2001
Dr. Jim Reilly
University College, University of Toronto
? - 1995
Paul Kingston
University of Toronto
Webmaster
2016 to 2019
Dara Conduit
Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University
2011 to 2015
Hilary Kalmbach
Lecturer in Middle Eastern History, University of Sussex
2001 to 2010
Joshua
Landis
Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma
Chair of Prize Committee
2017-2018
Malissa Taylor
Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts
Amherst
2015-2016
Charles L. Wilkins
Associate Professor of Middle Eastern History
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
2013-2014
Thomas Pierret
Lecturer in Contemporary Islam (IMES)
University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
2011- 2012
Steve Tamari
Assistant Professor of Historical Studies
Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois
2008-2010
Peter Sluglett
Professor, University of Utah
and
Andrea Stanton
University of Denver
2003-2006
Mary Christina Wilson
Professor, Department of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst
2001-2003
Keith Watenpaugh
Assistant Professor, Le Moyne College, NY
1998-2000
Randi Deguilhem,
Tenured Researcher
CNRS, IREMAM, MMSH, University of Provence
1996-1998
Mahmoud Haddad
Balamand University, Lebanon
Syria Liaison
2011-present
position vacant
2009-2010
Beverly Levine (now Beverly Tsacoyianis)
Washington University in St Louis
2003-2006
Sylvia Chiffoleau
Scientific Director
IFEAD
2000-2002
Nadine Meouchy
Scientific Director
IFEAD
now at Univ. of Lyons
Lebanon Liaison
2008(?)-present
position vacant
2005-2007
Stefan Weber
Book Review Editor
2011-2013
Beverly Tsacoyianis
Washington University in St Louis
2007-2010
Andrea Stanton
Sarah Lawrence College
2005-2007
Steve Tamari
Department of Historical Studies, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
2002-2005
Herb Bodman
Professor Emeritus, Univ. of North Carolina
Student Member
2016-2017
Graham Pitts
PhD Candidate, Georgetown University
2014-2015
Kawa Morad
PhD Candidate, University of Exeter
2012-2013
Benjamin Smuin
University of California, San Diego
2010-2011
Hilary Kalmbach
University of Oxford
2008-2009
Beverly Levine (now Beverly Tsacoyianis)
Washington University in St Louis
2006-2007
Hania Abou Al-Shamat
University of Southern California
Member at Large
If you have further information about past holders of this office, please contact the webmaster.
2017-2018
Reem Bailony
Assistant Professor of History
Agnes Scott College
Decatur, GA
2016-2017
Stacy Fahrenthold
Assistant Professor of History
Department of History
California State University Stanislaus
Turlock, CA
2015-2016
Melanie Schulze Tanielian
Assistant Professor
Department of History
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI
2014-2015
Elyse Semerdjian
Associate Professor
Islamic World and Middle Eastern History
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington
2013-2014
Max Weiss
Professor of History and Near Eastern Studies
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2012-2013
Benjamin Thomas White
Lecturer in Modern History
Uiversity of Birmingham, UK
2011-2012
Heghnar Watenpaugh
Associate Professor of Art History
UC Davis, California
2009-2010
Elyse Semerdjian
History, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington