Professor of Islamic world history at Montana State University, located in the gorgeous ski-town of Bozeman, MT. I generally teach two classes per semester, focusing mainly on the Balkans, Turkey & the Middle East, and post-Soviet space.

My connection to the Turkic World goes back more than three decades, beginning with the years 1992-1999 when I was employed as an English teacher in Istanbul. I then returned to the US to begin graduate school, completing an MA in Near Eastern Studies (2001) at Princeton University and a PhD in Middle Eastern and Russian History (2007) at Brown.

Altogether I have spent approximately six years of my life researching in the archives and libraries of Istanbul and the former Soviet Union. Research trips to Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine have been supported by the Fulbright Program, the Social Science Research Council, the American Research Institute in Turkey, IREX, and various other organizations.