SFS Selects Leaders For Three Academic Programs

Three professors were selected to lead key academic programs in the School of Foreign Service, the school announced last Thursday.

Osama Abi-Mershed, an assistant professor of history, will be the new director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. Raj Desai, an associate professor of international development, will direct the Certificate in International Development program. Judith Tucker, a professor of history, will return to her post as director of the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program after a two-year stint at the SFS campus in Doha, Qatar.

Abi-Mershed said he was delighted to be joining the CCAS program in the place of current director Barbara Stowasser, and he plans to strengthen ties to the Arab world through his work at the center.

"In light of the recent fundamental transformations in the political landscape of the region, it is crucial that we renew our commitments to academic excellence intellectual engagement, and public purpose," Abi-Mershed wrote in an email.

Abi-Mershed currently teaches Middle East II and a North African research seminar. His research focuses include colonial Algeria and education, as well as the Muslim and Arab worlds.

"I really respect him," Middle East II student Jane Bullock (SFS '13) said. "He can speak really intelligently about what's going on today. … He would make an excellent director."

Tucker said she was excited to resume her position — which involves overseeing both the MAAS program and the undergraduate certificate in Arab studies — at a time when the Arab world has been the focus of so much attention. She will be replacing Jean-Francois Seznec as director.

"This is the most thrilling and dynamic moment in the Arab world, certainly since I first began studying the region in the 1970s. People are struggling to take control of their own destiny," Tucker said.

After spending two years in the Middle East, Tucker said she is interested in widening the variety of Georgetown's courses about the history and culture of the Persian Gulf states. The new offerings would help ensure that students are prepared to effectively analyze current events.

"I would like to help review our curriculum with an eye to making sure we are doing everything we should be to ensure that our students are prepared to serve as interpreters of the momentous events in the region," she said.

Tucker's research and publications center on the relationship between and history of women and gender and the Arab world.

Desai has been a professor of international development at Georgetown for several years, but he is currently on sabbatical. He was previously an adjunct professor in the McDonough School of Business and a private sector development specialist for the World Bank. 

Desai declined to comment until he takes the position on July 1, when the appointments are effective. He will succeed the program's founding director, Maria Luise Wagner.