Sofia Smith is a Politics, Philosophy, and Economics major at Denison University. She has studied and traveled in Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, focusing on issues of political economy and finding the world’s best kanufa. Currently, she is a research assistant at Denison University and has interned with the US Senate and the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development. She has researched and written on Jordan’s dependence on foreign aide, revolution theory, the development of sectarian identities in Iraq, rentier economics, Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia, and is currently writing her thesis on the susceptibility of Saudi Arabia to revolution.
sofia.j.smith@gmail.com
follow: @sofiasmith4
Kelly Kirk is an International Studies Major at the University of Oregon with a focus on diplomacy and education in the Middle East, with minors in Arabic and Religious Studies. She has spent time in Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates where she enjoyed playing with street kittens and eating pomegranates. Currently she is a tutor at the American English Institute and has previously interned with AMIDEAST’s Fulbright division, the United States Department of State, and the Jordan Hashemite Fund for Human Development. She has researched and written on extremist groups in Iraq, women’s rights and the Arab Spring, the role of the media in Saudi religious decisions, and is currently writing her thesis on access to education in Syrian refugee camps.
kelly.kirk.711@gmail.com
Follow: @deilingrose
Samantha Densmore is an International Studies major with a focus on diplomacy in the Middle East and a minor in Arabic at University of Oregon. She has spent time in Jordan, Israel, Egypt and Turkey, eating as much shawarma and falafel sandwiches as is humanly possible. Currently, she tutors international students at the American English Institute of University of Oregon and previously she interned at Senator Jeff Merkley’s office in Portland and the American Center for Oriental Research in Jordan. She is writing her department thesis on tribalism in Jordanian politics.
samantha.l.densmore@gmail.com
Underneath the Kaffiyeh 