Curiculum Vitae

Rachel T. Howes

Department of History

California State University Northridge

18111 Nordhoff Street

Northridge, CA 91330-8250

(818)677-2755

rachel.howes@csun.edu

www.csun.edu/~rthowes

Education:

Fall 1994 to Fall 2003 Ph.D. in Islamic and Near Eastern History. History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. Advisor: Stephen Humphreys. December 2003.

Fall 1991 to Spring 1994. Master’s of Arts in Arab Studies. Master’s of Arts in Arab Studies Program, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Concentrations in Arab History and Arab Culture. Advisor Dr. Judith Tucker.

Fall 1987 to Spring 1991. Bachelor’s of Art in Asian Studies, cum laude. Amherst College, Amherst. MA. Honor’s Thesis: “Ambiguous Histories: Muslims in 13^th Century Valencia.” Advisor: John Petropolous. Concentrations in West Asia and India.

Dissertation:

TITLE: “Mu`ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi and the Fatimid Religious Propaganda Organization in the Age of al-Mustansir (1036-1094).” In this study I discuss the relationship between the organization of the Fatimid propaganda organization or Dawa, the Fatimid administration, and the most prominent propagandist, Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi in the mid-Eleventh century Middle East. I examine how aspects of the Dawa illuminate the decline of the Fatimid Caliphate, the structure of courts during this period, and the formation of new political structures.

Minor Fields:

Modern Middle East History

Islamic Theology, Philosophy and Law

World History

Medieval European History

Courses Taught

World History to 1500

Middle East Civilization

Medieval Middle East

Early Modern Middle East

Modern Middle East

Readings Seminars for Undergraduates:

The Crusades

Islamic Law

Pleasure and Vice in the Pre-Modern Middle East

A History of Iran in the Islamic Period

Research Seminars for Undergraduates

The Crusades

Islamic Law

Cities, Courts, and Elites in the Middle East

Graduate Colloquiums:

Historiography of the Middle East

Middle Eastern Political Thought

Languages:

Arabic: good reading and speaking ability French: good reading and speaking ability

German: good reading ability Spanish: good reading ability

Turkish: beginning reading ability Persian: good reading ability

Professional Organizations:

Middle East Studies Association

American Historical Association

American Oriental Society

American Research Center in Egypt

Middle East Medievalists

Phi Beta Delta

Academic Employment:

Fall 2002 to Present. Assistant Professor. Department of History, California State University Northridge.

Fall 2001. Teaching Assistant. Global Studies 1: Global History Culture and Ideology. Department of Global Studies. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Spring 2000. Teaching Associate, History 145B, The Expansion of Islam. History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fall 1995 to Winter 1999 intermittantly. Teaching Assistant, History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Summer 1997. Research Assistant to Professor Stephen Humphreys on a study of the Arab/Islamic Elite in Syria from the Arab Conquest to the Mongol invasion.

Winter 1997 to Spring 1997. Research Assistant to Professor Stephen Humphreys, History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fall 1994 to Spring 1995. Graduate Student Researcher. History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Academic Honors:

2008/2009 and 2004/2005 College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, California State University Northridge, Research Grant.

2008, 2007, 2006 College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, California State University Northridge, Summer Research Grant.

August 2005 and July 2006. Fellow at Some Institutes for Advanced Study Summer Institute “Heirarchy, Marginality, and Ethnicity in Muslim Societies (7^th Century to Second World War) Sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations.

Spring 2001. Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship. University of California, Santa Barbara.

Winter 1999 to Fall 1999, and Fall 1995 to Fall 1996. Teaching Fellow, History Department, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Fall 1997 to Summer 1998. Fulbright Grant to Cairo, Egypt to conduct research on “al-Shirazi and the Fatimid Dawa in the Age of al-Mustansir.”

Fall 1991 to Spring 1992 and Fall 1992 to Spring 1993. Departmental Fellowship. The Master’s of Arts in Arab Studies Program. Georgetown University.

Publications:

Under Review at Der Islam, ““The Qadi, the Wazir and the Da`i: Religious and Ethnic Relations in Buyid Shiraz in the Eleventh Century.”

Under Review at the Journal of the American Oriental Society “The soft one and hard politics: politics, religious education and the role of al-Mustansir’s mother in the Fatimid court of the eleventh century.”

Under Review at Darwin Press, July 2008, “Personal and Political Networks and the Fatimid Crisis of the Mid-Eleventh Century,” in Festschrit Conference in Honor of Dr. R. Stephen Humphreys ed. James Lindsay and Jon Armajani.

Under Review at Oxford Press. Edition and Introduction for a translation of `Alam al-Din, Majalis al-Mustansiriyya for the Institute for Ismaili Studies.

“Buyids,” Co-written with Dr. John Turner. for Dr. Joseph Meri, ed., Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. To be published by Taylor and Francis.

Review of Nasir Khusrau & Faquir M. Hunzai

. Knowledge and Liberation in a Muslim World: An Introduction to Ismaili Philosophical Theology, in Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, 36/1 (Summer 2002).

Conference Papers:

November 2008, Middle East Studies Association Conference, paper presenter and panel organizer, “Aspects of Fatimid Thought and History: The writings of al-Mu’ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi.”

October 2007. Festschrisft Conference in Honor of R. Stephen Humphreys. “Personal and Political Networks and the Fatimid Crisis of the Mid-Eleventh Century,”

March 2007. American Oriental Society Annual Conference. “The Religious Education of Women in a Muslim State: Lectures to Fatimid Women in the Court of al-Mustansir (1036-1094CE)”

January 2007. Hawaii International Conference for the Humanities. “The Religious Education of Women in a Muslim State: Lectures to Fatimid Women in the Court of al-Mustansir (1036-1094CE)”

March 2005. Participated in Center for Middle East Studies, UCSB, 7^th annual Conference.

November 2004. Middle East Studies Association Annual Meeting. “The Political Strategies of Shi`is in Eleventh Century Iranian Courts.”

March 2004. The American Oriental Society Annual Meeting. “Did the Seljuks Almost Lose? The Historiography of the Battle of Sinjar.”

January 2003. The American Historical Association Annual Meeting. “The soft one and hard politics: The role of al-Mustansir’s Mother in the Fatimid court.”

November 2002. The Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting. “The soft one and hard politics: The role of al-Mustansir’s Mother in the Fatimid court.”

November 2001. The Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting. “The Political Factions of the Cairo Court 436-448.”

November 2000. The Middle Eastern Studies Association Annual Meeting. “The Accounts of the Fatimid Invasion of Baghdad in The Mudhakirat of Mu`ayyad fi al-Din al-Shirazi and Ibn al-Athir’s al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh.”