Global and International Studies Building, 3036
Adjunct Affiliations
Professor, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Professor, Anthropology
Education
B.A. at University of Hawaii, 1972
M.A. at University of Washington, 1972
Ph.D. at University of Washington, 1976
Research Interests
The cultural ecology of nomadic pastoralism; state and society; Islamic movements; identity politics; social change and modernization; and Muslim family and gender dynamics in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia.
Courses Recently Taught
- Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East
- Peoples and Cultures of Central Asia
- Anthropology of religion
- Seminar in Central Asian Anthropological Studies, topics change by semester, recent topics include:
- Family, Gender and Population Dynamics in Central Asia & the Middle East
- Islam and Politics in Central Asia and the Middle East
- Nomadic Pastoralism in Central Asian & Middle Eastern History and Society
- Representations of Islam and Muslims in Anthropological Literature
- Social Change in Central Asia
- States and Societies in Central and Southwestern Asia
Publication Highlights
The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War, (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press), 2002, pp. xli + 302
Revolutions and Rebellions in Afghanistan: Anthropological Perspectives. M. Nazif Shahrani and Robert L. Canfield, eds. Berkeley, Institute of International Studies, University of California, 1984, pp.xiv + 394.
“Taliban and Talibanism in Historical Perspective” The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, edited by Robert Crew and Amin Tarzi. Harvard University Press, 2008
“Afghanistan” in Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford Islamic Studies Online at <http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com>.
Reclaiming Islam in Uzbekistan: Soviet Legacies and Post-Soviet Realities Journal of Turkic Civilization Studies No. 2 (2006), pp. 77-103.
“King Aman-Allah of Afghanistan’s Failed Nation-Building Project and its Aftermath” (a review article),Iranian Studies, volume 38, number 4 (2005), pp. 661-675.
The Challenge of Post-Taliban Governance. ISIM Newsletter, 2003, 12:22-23.
"War, Factionalism, and the State in Afghanistan" American Anthropologist, 104(3) September 2002, pp. 715-722
"Pining for Bukhara in Afghanistan: Poetics and Politics of Exilic Identity and Emothions," in Reform Movements and revolutions in Turkistan 1900-1924: Studies in Honour of Osman Khoja, edited by Timur Kocaoglu, (Haarlem, Netherlands: SOTA), 2001, pp 369-391
"Afghanistan can Learn from Its Past," New York Times, Op-Ed Page 13, Sunday, October 14, 2001
"Resisting the Taliban and Talibanism in Afghanistan: Legacies of A Century of Internal Colonialism and Cold War Politics in a Buffer State: Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs, v(4), 2000, 121-140, published by the Center for Strategic Research, Ankara, Turkey