Central Eurasian Studies

Email:

lmruth@iu.edu

Education

Indiana University – Bloomington, IN
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Student, Central Eurasian Studies Department (current)
Minor: Gender Studies

Vanderbilt University – Nashville, TN
Master of Arts, Graduate Department of Religion – May 15^th, 2021
Master’s Thesis – “‘Skirting’ Society: How Women in Late Antique Persia Used Religious Pluralism to Subvert Gender Boundaries”

University of Louisville – Louisville, KY
Bachelor of Arts (Summa Cum Laud) – May 12^th, 2018
Major: History
Minor: Political Science
Senior Honors Thesis: “Caught in the Crossfires: Changes for Women During the Transition Period in Iran”

Research Interests

Iran, women, gender, Sassanian Empire, Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, Zoroastrianism, Syriac Christianity, Church of the East, Babylonian Judaism, early Islam, religious texts, gender regulations, inter-religious dialogue, hagiography, Babylonian Talmud, marriage, divorce, social history, legal history, the body and society, historical definition of gender, motherhood, femininity vs. masculinity, agency 

Language Skills

Ancient: Classical Arabic, Classical Syriac
Modern: French, Japanese, Persian
Artificial: TEI XML

Academic Work Experience

Vanderbilt University:
Teaching Assistant: CLAS 1010 Introduction to Mediterranean Studies (Spring 2021)
Teaching Assistant: DIV 6700 History of Global Christianities I (Fall 2020)
Manuscript Cataloguer: Syriaca.org Digital Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts in the British Library (2019-2021)
Research Assistant: Dr. David Michelson (2019-2020)

University of Louisville:
REACH Center (Resources for Academic Achievement)
Master Tutor (Spring 2018)
Course Tutor: Physics 107 Elementary Astronomy (2017-2018)

Awards

FLAS Scholarship, The Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Indiana University (2021-2022)
Hamilton Lugar Fellowship, Indiana University
Mary Katherine Bonsteel Tachau Award for Excellence in History, University of Louisville
Dean’s Scholar (Fall 2015-Spring 2018), University of Louisville
Trustee’s Scholarship, University of Louisville