Sara Scalenghe
- Assistant Professor, Department of History
- Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Education
- Ph.D. at Georgetown University, 2006
Contact Information
| Ballantine Hall, Rm. 628 |
| (812) 855-7438 |
Background
I am a historian of the social and cultural history of the early modern and modern Middle East. I am especially interested in recovering the histories of "marginal" groups and people, such as the disabled and sexual minorities. My current work focuses on attitudes to difference—specifically blindness, deafness, insanity, and intersexuality—in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. My next book-length project will be centered on 19th- and 20th-century Beirut, and will examine if and to what extent increased Christian missionary activity, the establishment of Western-style medical schools and hospitals, colonialism, and the formation of the nation-state informed new conceptions of the body and bodily difference.
Selected Awards
- Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, 2006-2007
- The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship), 2004-2005
- Cosmos Club Foundation (Young Scholars Award), Washington, DC (2004)
- Royden B. Davis Dissertation Fellowship, Georgetown University, 2003-2004
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2002-2003
- Social Science Research Council (International Dissertation Research Fellowship), 2001-2002
- Institute of Turkish Studies Grant (2002)
Research Interests
- Early modern and modern Middle Eastern and North African history
- Ottoman Empire
- Social and cultural, gender, disability
Courses Recently Taught
- Modern Middle Eastern History
- The Body in Modern History
Publication Highlights
Articles
"The Deaf in Ottoman Syria, 16th-18th Centuries." Arab Studies Journal 12-13 (Fall 2004/Spring 2005): 10-25.
Conference Papers
"Towards a History of Disability in the Middle East: Attitudes to the Deaf in Ottoman Syria." Rethinking Culture in the Ottoman 18th Century, Princeton University, January 2005.
"How Many Genders?: Hermaphrodites, Effeminates, and 'Homosexuals' in Middle Eastern History." Rethinking the Study of Women and Gender in the Arab World: Issues and Trends in Scholarship and Teaching, Georgetown University, February 2004.
"Medical Discourses on the Gendered Body in Ottoman Syria." Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, November 2002.