Current Graduate Students
azza@ucla.edu
Education
Advanced to Candidacy
Women's Studies, University of California-Los Angeles
BBA (Hons), Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM)
MA, Women and Gender Studies, Roosevelt University
Teaching/Research Interests
Gender and Religion, Islamic Societies and Cultures, Transnational Feminist
Analyses, Middle East Studies, Southeast Asian Studies
Dissertation Committee
Chair: Professor Sondra Hale
Professor Karen Brodkin
Professor Emily Abel
Professor Lara Deeb (UC Irvine)
Professor Abdullahi An-Na’im (Emory University)
Dissertation Research
“In Search of Moral Communities: Engaging Gender Justice and Ethical
Citizenry in Malaysia and Egypt”
Selected Fellowships and Awards
| 2008-2009 | Chancellor’s Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA |
| Graduate Fellowship, UCLA Asia Institute | |
| Summer 2008 | FMS-Mellon Fellow: The Future of Minority Studies Summer Institute (FMS), “Thinking Transnationally: Feminist Visions” Cornell University, Ithaca |
| 2006-2007 | International Dissertation Field Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (SSRC) |
| Dissertation Field Research Grant, Wenner-Gren Anthropological
Foundation Cultural Anthropology - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement, National Science Foundation (NSF) |
|
| Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Program, U.S Department of Education (Declined) | |
| Pacific Rim Dissertation Research Fellowship, Pacific Rim Research Program, University of California System (Declined) | |
| Paula Stone Dissertation Fellowship, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA | |
| 2004-2005 | UCLA Graduate Research Mentorship |
| 2003-2004 | Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) Title VI in Arabic, UCLA |
| 2002-2003 | UCLA International Institute Fellowship |
| 2000-2001 | Grace Mary Stern Scholarship, Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois |
Teaching Experience
Teaching Fellow, Introduction to Women's Studies, Spring 2008 (UCLA)
Teaching Fellow, Gender, Islam, and Feminism Spring 2006 (UCLA)
Teaching Associate, Introduction to Women's Studies (UCLA)
Instructor, Introduction to Women’s Studies, Spring 2005 (Cerritos College)
Teaching Assistant, Introduction to Women's Studies, Fall 2005 (UCLA)
Reader, Feminist Theories in Social Sciences, Fall 2004 (UCLA)
Teaching Assistant, Women of Color in the United States, Spring 2003 (UCLA)
Selected Research Experience
Dissertation field research in Malaysia and Egypt, July 2006- December 2007
Research Assistant, Professor Nayereh Tohidi, Balzan-Keddie Fellow and UCLA
Center for the Study of Women (CSW), 2006
Research Assistant, Professor Kathleen McHugh, UCLA Center for the Study of
Women (CSW), 2005
Research Assistant, Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Visiting Scholar,
UCLA Center for the Study of Women and UCLA Law School, 2005
Selected Papers and Presentations
Guest Lecturer, Women’s movement in the Muslim world, WOM STD M164A, Spring 2008 (UCLA)
Conference Presentation, (Re)defining Faith, (Re) packaging Muslim?: Living Islam
in Malaysia in the 21st Century, Marketing Muslim Women, Duke University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), April 10-12, 2008
Invited Speaker, Searching for the Faithful: Engaging Gender, Islam and Feminism in Malaysia, Culture, Power and Social Change Speaker Series (CSPC), Department of Anthropology, UCLA, Feb 28, 2008
Invited Participant, Tracing Our Research Trajectories: The Study of Gender in Muslim Societies (A Roundtable of Southern California Scholars), The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (JMEWS), UCLA, Feb 13 2008
Conference Presentation, Re(creating) Communities of the Faithful: Negotiating Gender, Islam and Feminism in Malaysia and Egypt, Engaging Islam: Feminisms, Religiosities and Self-Determinations, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, Sept. 12-16m 2007
Invited Participant, Transnational Muslim Ummah and Feminist Networks, Gender and Empire II workshop, Cynthia Nelson Institute for Gender Studies (IGWS), American University in Cairo, Egypt, May 13-14 2007
Invited Panelist, Living Islam Post 9/11, Borders, Violence and Civil Liberties: Arab/Muslim Women After 9/11, The Thirteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Scripps College, Claremont, California, June 2-5, 2005
Invited Chair, Some Contemporary Issues in Middle East Women’s Studies Activism, Conflict, and Reconstruction, The Thirteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Scripps College, Claremont, California, June 2-5, 2005
Conference Presentation, Faith-based Activism: Sisters in Islam in Malaysia, International Conference on Islam: Islam and Dialogue, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, April 29-30, 2005
Selected Publications
“Tracing Our Research Trajectories: The Study of Gender in Muslim Societies” Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (JMEWS), Brief Communications, 4: 2 (Spring 2008): 81-86.
“Our Memories of Islam: Pakistani, Malaysian and Palestinian Women (Re) imagine “Muslim” and (Re) define Faith” in Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality, Sarah Husain, ed. Emeryville, Seal Press, 2006 (co-authored with K. Shaikh and M. Mohammed)
“On Occupation and Resistance: Two Iraqi Women Speak Out” in Voices of Resistance, Sarah Husain, ed. Emeryville, Seal Press, 2006 (reprinted with an introduction; co-authored with K. Shaikh)
Manuscript in Preparation
“Speaking Ethnographic Silence: Non-Western Researcher, Fieldwork
Experiences and Identity Politics”
Community Service
| 2008 | Member, SWANA (South and West Asia and North Africa) Collective and Radio Intifada, KPFK, Pacifica Radio, Los Angeles |
| 2006-2007 | Committee Member, Fiesta Feminista Gathering, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| 2002-2004 | Program Coordinator and Global Fellow, Muslim Women’s Human Rights, Islamic Institute for Human Rights (IIFHR) |
| 1999-2001 | Volunteer, Apna Ghar, Chicago, Illinois |
Professional Memberships
Member, American Anthropological Association (AAA)
- Association for Feminist Anthropology
- Society for the Anthropology of Religion
- Middle East Section
- Society for Cultural Anthropology
Secretary, Association of Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS)
Member, Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)
Member, National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)
Member, The Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
Other Professional Activities
| 2003 | Present Committee Member, UCLA Women’s Studies Global South Project |
| 2006 | Committee Member: Migrating Epistemologies Workshop Series, CSW |
| 2005 | Co-Organizer, Precious Stones: A Play for UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the Women’s Studies Programs |
| Organizer and Chair, Muslim Women Sexuality and Sexual Identity, Panel for UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) | |
| Graduate Representative, UCLA Women’s Studies Admissions Committee | |
| 2003-2005 | Editorial Intern, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |
| 2004 | Organizer, International Women’s Day Film Festival, CSW |
| 2003-2004 | Committee Member, Women’s Studies Graduate Curriculum Committee |