Majd Al-Mallah
Majd Al-Mallah received his Ph.D. in Arabic and comparative literature from Indiana University and serves as Director of the Middle East Studies Program. He currently teaches Arabic at the elementary and intermediate levels as well as Middle East Studies courses on civilization, culture, and literature. His research is concerned with a number of periods and genres of Arabic Literature. For example, he works on medievel poetry )especially 10th and 11th centuries) and studies how this poetry functioned within the ruler's court and the community at large. In addition, he works on the modern Arabic Novel, especially Naguib Mahfouz (1988 Nobel Laureate) and Tayyib Salih. He currently serves as the advisor of the Arab Culture Club and as the Director of the Middle East Studies Program.

Janet Brashler
Janet Brashler (Ph.D.in Anthropology from Michigan State), has been working on archaeological projects in Jordan since 1994 at two localities. Her research there has focused on mortuary evidence of social organization and ethnicity at Umm al-Jimal in northern Jordan, and the archaeology of a Roman/Byzantine occupation at the southern end of the Dead Sea where her work helped establish a chronology for a series of earthquakes that occurred in prehistory. Her work in the Middle East led to the development of a course in the archaeology of the Middle East in the anthropology department.

 Jeremiah Cataldo
Jeremiah Cataldo received his Ph.D. from Drew University with a primary focus on ancient Israel and Judah and a secondary focus on the ancient Near East. He has published a book and multiple articles on the nature of the social-political structure in the Persian imperial province of Judah. His current research continues to focus on this province and has recently expanded into the relationship between religion and society in the ancient world, most notably how social, economic, and political factors gave way to the development of monotheism. At Grand Valley State University, he currently teaches courses on Biblical Hebrew and ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and empires, among others.

Roy Cole
Assistant professor of geography and planning, Roy Cole earned his PhD from Michigan State University with an area specialization in Africa and the Middle East and a language specialization in Arabic. He has been a Fulbright scholar in the Republic of Mali and a student of Arabic at American University Cairo. He was the principal researcher for OXFAM/UK and the Sudanese government in Red Sea province, where he studied drought, malnutrition and land use. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal and Mali.

Sigrid Danielson
Teaches in the Art and Design Department and specializes in medieval art history. She teaches a new course on Islamic art. Her research interests include the intersections between local politics, religious patronage and temporal authority in the art of the early medieval Mediterranean.

Danielle M. DeMuth
Danielle M. DeMuth, Assistant Professor of Women and Gender Studies, earned her PhD in English from the University of Toledo. She joins GVSU from Hamilton College where she taught Feminist Theory, Sexuality in Literature and Film, and Arab and Arab American Feminism-a course she has brought to GVSU. Her research and teaching interests have recently transformed in relation to post-9/11 culture to include a study of feminist movements in the Arab world through memoirs of Arab feminists.

Coeli Fitzpatrick
Coeli Fitzpatrick studied Arabic at the University of Jordan, then earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from SUNY Binghamton. Her research focused on medieval Arabic medicine and philosophy. She will teach medieval philosophy here at GVSU, where the focus will be on Islamic philosophy.

James Goode
Received his doctorate in history from Indiana University. He teaches several courses on the history of the Middle East and the Islamic world. His publications have focused on Iran where he lived from 1968 to 1973. He is currently writing a book on archaeology and nationalism in the Middle East, 1919-1939.

Sheldon Kopperl
Sheldon Kopperl, who joined the GVSU faculty in 1970, is Professor of Biomedical Sciences and the History of Science. He also had extensive education in Hebrew and Jewish traditions at the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland (Ohio). He is chair of adult education at Temple Emanuel of Grand Rapids. His research interest is in science and medicine in post-Biblical authoritative Jewish texts (e.g., the Talmuds).

 Chad Lingwood
Chad Lingwood, Assistant Professor of History, earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. His dissertation and research interests focus on manuals of political and ethical advice written for Muslim rulers. At GVSU, he will teach courses on the history of Islamic civilization and Islamic empires.

Sebastian Maisel
Sebastian Maisel is a visitor in Modern Languages and Middle East Studies. He received his PhD in anthropology and Arabic and Islamic studies from the University of Leipzig, Germany, following several years of research among the bedouin of Saudi Arabia.

Barbara Roos
Associate professor in the School of Communications where she serves as assistant director. She did extensive undergraduate and graduate course work in Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan. She has traveled extensively in the Middle East, including Egypt and Syria (1994), Yemen (1996) and a CIEE study visit to Turkey in 1998 and has produced short video reports for classroom use on Egypt, Syria and Yemen. In summer 1999 she taught "American Social Issues and Cinema" at Middle East Technical University, Ankara. She served as director of the Michigan Committee on US-Arab Relations, 1997-1999, and as editor of its principal publication, Newslines. She has also written articles on censorship in Yemen and Lebanon for the Encyclopedia of Censorship.

Mark Schaub
Before coming to GVSU, Schaub taught for almost 7 years at the American University in Cairo, where he directed the Writing Program. Schaub's research interests and publications include Arabic and Islamic Rhetoric, International Business, and Intercultural Communication related to the Arab World.

Mark Schwartz
Mark Schwartz received his PhD in Anthropology from Northwestern University and focused his doctoral research on trade between the early city-states of Mesopotamia and the emerging complex societies of Anatolia in the fourth millennium B.C. He has worked on excavations in Turkey, Israel and Arizona and has traveled to Syria and Egypt. Currently he is initiating an archaeological survey project in the Malatya and Batman regions of Turkey where he hopes to involve students in research. While at Grand Valley, he will teach courses on the archaeology of the Near East as well as general courses concerning archaeology. He is also working on a documentary film for the History Channel on military history of the ancient Near East.