Current Projects:
My previous work looked at collective action in relation to the built environment. In Joyriding in Riyadh I studied the making of the Saudi capital from the conflicted points of view of urban planners, developers, and car drifters. In Graveyard of Clerics I analyzed the Saudi Islamic movement in the suburban context in which it emerged. My current research sits at the intersection of ecological anthropology and critical race theory. In one of my new projects I look at the lifeworlds of an invasive free floating flower, Eichhornia Crassipes aka Water Hyacinth or Ward al-Nil (Nile rose), as it drifts through the Egyptian waterscape. By studying the alliances between Water Hyacinth and other plant and animal species, including our own, I propose to rethink the contribution of invasives to the landscape. In another project I analyze the role of the enslaved in the making of the Saudi state in the 19th century, based on a careful reading of several Central Arabian chronicles, including Uthman Ibn Bishr’s Sign of Glory in Najdi History.
Biography:
I joined the University in 2024 from the Center for Economic, Legal, and Social Studies and Documentation (CEDEJ) in Cairo, which I directed for two years. Before moving to Egypt, I was an associate professor of anthropology at Brandeis University and an assistant professor of Middle East Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. And before that, I was a Harvard Academy Scholar and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. I received my PhD in history from the University of Paris-1 and my BA in philosophy from the University of Aix-Marseille.
Research Interests:
Environmental anthropology, infrastructure studies, critical race theory, urban studies.
Recent Publications:
2022 “ The Petroptimist: Dancing in the Ruins of Fossil Capitalism.” In Agn ès Deboulet and Waleed Mansour (eds.), Middle Eastern Cities in a Time of Climate Crisis (CEDEJ).
2020 Graveyard of Clerics: Everyday Activism in Saudi Arabia (Stanford University Press).
2019 “ Learning from Riyadh: Automobility, Joyriding, and Politics,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 39-1, 131-142.
2017 “ The Suburbanization of Islamic Activism in Saudi Arabia.” City and Society 29-1, 162-186.
2014 Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism, and Road Revolt (Cambridge University Press).
2014 Cities in the Arabian Peninsula (ed.). Special issue of City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 18-6, 698-770.
2014 The Abu Dhabi Guide: Modern Architecture, 1968-1992/Dalil Abu Dhabi: al-‘imara al-hadathiyya, 1968-1992 (ed.) (NYU Abu Dhabi/FIND).
