• Ph.D., Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, 2007
• MA, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Chicago, 2001
• BA, History, The College of New Jersey, 1999

Visiting Assistant Professor, Tulane University (2007-08)

Adjunct Instructor, Loyola University, Chicago (2006)

HIST 101: World History to 1450

HIST 102: World History since 1450

HIST 281: Islamic Middle East (600-1800)

HIST 282: Modern Middle East

HIST 290: Historical Theories and Methods

HIST 381: Mongol World Empire

HIST 382: Religion and Politics in Iran

HIST 490: Capstone Research Seminar

Selected Publications

“Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Sultan Ahmad Jalayir’s Time as a Refugee in the Mamluk Sultanate,” in Mamluk Cairo, a Crossroad for Embassies, ed. Frédéric Bauden and Malika Dekkiche (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2017), 337-350.

The Mamluk Empire, co-authored with Jo Van Steenbergen, Edinburgh History of the Islamic Empires Series (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2017).

A History of the Classical Middle East, co-authored with Emran El-Badawi, Sumaiya Hamdani, and Paul Sidelko (San Diego: Cognella, forthcoming 2017).

The Jalayirids: Dynastic State Formation in the Mongol Middle East (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016).

“Submission, Defiance, and the Rules of Politics on the Mamluk Sultanate’s Anatolian Frontier,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society series 3, 25 (2015): 377-388.

“Bāydū,” in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 3rd ed., ed. Kate Fleet, et al. (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2015), 3: 52-54.

“The Medieval Fleets of the Red Sea,” in upcoming volume, ed. Michel Balard (Paris: Association Océanides).

“Mozaffarids,” in Encyclopaedia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, forthcoming.

“Indian Ocean Trade and Sultanic Authority: The nāẓir of Jedda and the Mamluk Political Economy,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57:1 (2014): 55-75.

“Rich in Goods and Abounding in Wealth’: The Ilkhanid and Post-Ilkhanid Ruling Elite and the Politics of Commercial Life at Tabriz, 1250-1400,” in Politics, Patronage, and the Transmission of Knowledge in 13th-15thCentury Tabriz, ed. Judith Pfeiffer (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 301-320.

Review of Anne Broadbridge, Kingship and Ideology in the Islamic and Mongol Worlds, in Journal of Islamic Studies 21 (2010): 317-320.

Review of Timothy May, The Mongol Art of War: Chinggis Khan and the Mongol Military System, in Mamluk Studies Review 12:2 (2008): 231-233.

Review of Denise Aigle, Le Fars sous la domination Mongole: Politique et Fiscalité (XIIIe-XIVe s.), in Mamluk Studies Review 12:1 (2008): 208-210.

“The Decline of the Ilkhanate and the Mamluk Sultanate’s Eastern Frontier,” Mamluk Studies Review 11:2 (2007): 77-88. 

Review of Angus Donal Stewart, The Armenian Kingdom and the Mamluks: War and Diplomacy during the Reigns of Het‘um II (1289-1307), in Mamluk Studies Review 10:2 (2006): 184-186.

“The Syrian Commercial Elite and 15th Century Mamluk State-Building,” Conference: “Whither the Early Modern State? Fifteenth-Century State Formations Across Eurasia: Connections, Divergences, and Comparisons,” Ghent, September, 2014.

“The ‘Ilkhanid Legacy’ and the Re-imagining of Dynastic Rulership under the Jalayirids and Qara Quyunlu,” International Society for Iranian Studies Conference, Montreal, August, 2014.

Project Scholar, Let’s Talk About It: Muslim Journeys Public Book Discussion Program, as part of the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf Grant, Awarded to the University of Redlands by the American Library Association and National Endowment for the Humanities, 2013-2014.

Discussant, Muslim Journey’s Film Series, Redlands, CA, 2013-2014.

“Maragha Before the Mongols: An Overview of Intellectual Life Prior to Ṭūṣī’s Observatory,” Conference: “Maragha and Its Scholars: A Center of Learning and Its Legacy,” Istanbul, December, 2013.

“The Notables of Baghdad and the Limits of Sultanic Authority in 8th/14th Century Iraq,” Middle East Studies Association Conference, New Orleans, October, 2013.

“Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Sultan Ahmad Jalayir’s Time as a Refugee in the Mamluk Sultanate,” Conference on Mamluk Cairo: A Crossroad for Embassies, Liège, September, 2012.

“Submission, Defiance, and the Rules of Politics on the Mamluk Sultanate’s Anatolian Frontier,” International Medieval Studies Conference, Leeds, July, 2012

“The Red Sea as a Link in Indian Ocean-Mediterranean Trade Networks,” IMEHA International Conference of Maritime History, Ghent, July, 2012

“The Expansion of Sultanic Authority under the Mamluk Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay: The Case of the nazir of Jedda,” Anne-Marie Schimmel Kolleg for History and Society during the Mamluk Era, 1250-1517, Bonn, January, 2012.

“Mongols, Mamluks, and Long-Distance Trade (1200-1450),” German-Israeli Summer School, The Political, Social and Intellectual History of the Mamluk and Mongol Empires: A Comparative Perspective, Jerusalem, September, 2011.

“Political Culture on the Mamluk Sultanate’s Anatolian Frontier,” International Congress of Byzantine Studies, Sofia, August, 2011.

“Mamluk Political Change and Indian Ocean Trade in the Fifteenth Century,” World History Association Conference, Beijing, July, 2011.

“The Legacy of the Qa’ans: Post-Chinggisid Political Ideology in Eurasia,” World History Association Conference, San Diego, June, 2010.

“The Construction of Royal Authority in the Post-Mongol Middle East,” Middle East Studies Association Conference, Washington, D.C., November, 2008.

“A Mongol Tribe and the Experience of Empire: The Jalayir, 1200-1432,” Middle East History and Theory Conference, Chicago, May, 2004.

 “Tolui’s Other Son: A Lineage-based Approach to Jochid-Toluid Relations in the Second Half of the 13thCentury,” Central Eurasian Studies Society Conference, Madison, October, 2002.

Mortar Board Professor of the Year Nominee, University of Redlands, 2016

Faculty Review Committee Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Redlands, 2015

University of Redlands Faculty Research Grant, 2013-2014

NEH Summer Institute Fellow, “The Silk Roads: Early Globalization and Chinese Cultural Identity,” sponsored by the Asian Studies Development Program, Honolulu, May-June 2010

University of Redlands Faculty Research Grant, 2009-2010