Graduate Students

Bedii Duru Altug recieved his B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Washington in 2011 while also majoring in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and minoring in International Studies. Having Studied Turkish, Uygur and Russian his focus lies in the Central Asia, primarily in comparative Turkic studies, ranging from Comparative Turkic Linguistics to the Socio-Economic impacts of increasing inter-Turkic relations. As President of the Association of Central Asian Studies at the UW, Duru intends to promote Central/Inner Asian Culture, helping students from the region adjust to American life and to work on building interest and awareness in the field of Central Asian Studies.

Josef Burton graduated from Portland State University with a multidisciplinary degree and a minor in Turkish language and culture. He has studied abroad twice in Turkey, at the Middle East Technical University during 2005-6 on an NSEP scholarship, and during summer 2008 at Boğaziçi University on a CLS scholarship. Josef’s interests lie primarily in the cultural and political history of youth and being young in Turkey, specifically in the manner in which dominant narratives of youth were created, accepted, maintained, and subverted. He plans to continue his study of Turkish and Farsi language while at the University of Washington.

Albana Dwonch received her B.A. in Albanian Language and Literature from the University of Tirana, in Albania. She worked as a journalist in Albania and then moved to the Middle East as an international aid worker for Mercy Corps, promoting digital media and the new technologies among Arab youth as a tool that enables global communication and awareness. In the past eight years, she has lived and worked in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel, where she developed a strong interest in the history and literature of the region. Her interests now include the Arabic and Turkish languages and civilizations with a focus on contemporary Arabic literature.

Richard Eyraud received his B.A. in Germanics from the University of Washington. He also completed his graduate studies at the UW receiving an M.A. in Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Sciences. His interests include the Arabic and Persian languages and contemporary culture. He has worked in technology for over 10 years and is currently a Principal Researcher at Getty Images.

Muhammad Omer Iqbal's areas of interest are classical Arabic literature, and interpretation and application of Islamic texts, specifically the Quran and hadith. To achieve his research goals, Omer intends to major in Arabic, with Turkish as his minor language to understand the Ottomans’ application of Islamic law. He intends to continue his research in a Ph.D. program on public policy in contemporary Muslim states. Omer is one of the speakers in Islamic Speakers Bureau, director of islamitexts.org portal, maintains a reader’s blog on Seattle-PI, and has published various articles on his own website. His native languages are Urdu and Punjabi, and he has additionally studied Arabic and German. He earned his B.Sc. in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan, and has been working at Microsoft since 2001.

Shira Jaret graduated from McGill University in 2006, where she majored in Jewish Studies and minored in American History. She is now focusing on Hebrew Bible and biblical interpretation from antiquity to modern times.

Zachary Johnson was first exposed to the Arabic language at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA as a soldier in the WA state army national guard.  After spending 16 months in the introductory intensive language program there, he deployed directly to Camp Al Taqaddum, Iraq in support of his unit in 2009.  Upon his return to WA in August, Zach enrolled in the University of WA and continued his studies in NELC as an undergraduate, receiving his BA in 2010.  As a graduate student, Zach is continuing his studies in the Arabic language as well as Persian, with an aim to be proficient in both languages.

Peter Klempner received his B.A. from the University of Washington in Ethnomusicology in 2006 focusing on Uyghur and Kyrgyz musical traditions. He currently studies Uyghur, Persian, and Russian language and is interested in the modern processes of canonization of musical repertoires in Turkic Central Asia, the maintenance of Soviet cultural practices in post-Soviet Central Asia, and the geopolitics of statehood and stateless nations. He previously studied Kyrgyz language and hopes to expand his research into the Caucasus of the Russian Federation.

Lauren Montgomery graduated from Old Dominion University with a B.S. in Psychology and a Minor in Middle Eastern Studies.  Her interests are rooted in the cultural psychology of the region.  She plans to continue to study Arabic and Turkish.

Nicholas Steiner received his B.A. in International Studies from Wittenberg University. A 2009-2010 NSEP Scholar, Nicholas studied Uighur at the Minzu University of China in Beijing while conducting research on minority education and the social dynamics of Turkic minorities in urban China. His primary interest lies in comparing Turkic communities throughout post-Soviet Central Asia, China, and Turkey as they range between permanency and diaspora, examining what fosters imagined or reconstituted political and cultural identities within them.