Graduate Students

Najla Abdurrahman completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in cell and molecular biology. Her current research interests include Arabic language and Islamic studies. She has studied Arabic, Persian and German, and was awarded a FLAS fellowship for Turkish study during the summer of 2008. In addition, she has been appointed teaching assistant for elementary Arabic for the current academic year.

Brittany Clark graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in History and Anthropology, and a minor in Middle East Studies. Her fascination with the Middle East dates back to her youth. She has studied both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic and plans to focus on Francophone North Africa and Egypt at the UW while she considers possible careers with NGOs or in governmental spheres.

Aaron Haley completed his undergraduate degree in Near Eastern Language and Civilization here at the University of Washington. His research focuses on Modern Iranian history and literature from the Constitutional Revolution to the present day. He is interested in Womens' studies, Iran's intellectual and political reform movements and Persian classical music. Aaron is a native Spanish speaker and has studied Persian, French, Arabic, and Tajik. After obtaining his Masters Degree, he plans on continuing his research on Iran and pursuing an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Near East Studies.

Capri Karaca graduated (magna cum laude) with a B.A. in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Washington in 2001. During summer 2008, she attended Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, having received a fellowship from the American Research Institute of Turkey (ARIT). In Autumn 2008, she began the M.A. program with a FLAS fellowship. Her primary area of concentration is Turkish studies. She is interested in exploring themes of migration, identity, and memory reflected in film, art, and literature at home and in the diaspora. She also will study Ottoman Turkish and Arabic. Capri plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies, teach Turkish, and work on literature translation and film projects.

William Reed graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 with a B.A. in Religious Studies. He is interested in Semitic languages, textual criticism (specifically of the Hebrew Bible), the use of the Hebrew Bible by various groups in antiquity (e.g. different Christian groups), the impact of physical manuscripts and scribal habits on interpretation, and the use of technology to improve language learning and academic research. William has studied Spanish, German, Ancient Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Portuguese, Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Aramaic. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies (or equivalent), teach Hebrew, and work toward creating more digital aids for scholars in the field of ancient languages and literatures.

Alva Robinson received his B.A. degree from the University of Houston in 2007 with a double major in Sociology and English Literature. Much of his undergraduate career centered around comparative literary analysis of the works of Turkmen National Poet, Magtymguly, including research completed while in Turkey, and on examining Central Asia through a sociological lens. He also has formally studied Arabic, French, German, and Latin, contributed time as a travelogue host through Ebru TV, and studied Turkish at Ankara University TOMER while living in Istanbul. Alva received a two-year Bank of America scholarship through the UW Graduate School’s GO-MAP office. He will focus his graduate studies on Central Asian Literature and the indigenous literary traditions of Mexico.