Six Women Named 2019 Luce/ACLS Fellows in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs

The American Council of Learned Societies has announced the 2019 Luce/ACLS Fellows in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs. The fellowships support scholars in the humanities and related social sciences pursuing research on any aspect of religion in international contexts with a desire to connect their specialist knowledge with journalists and media practitioners. The ultimate goal of the research will be a significant piece of scholarly work by the applicant and concrete steps to engage journalistic and media audiences. This program is made possible by the support of the Henry Luce Foundation.

This year six scholars were named 2019 Luce/ACLS Fellows in Religion, Journalism, and International Affairs. All six new fellows are women.

Evelyn Azeeza Alsultany is an associate professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on representations of Arabs and Muslims in U.S. media; Islamophobia/Anti-Muslim racism/racialization of Muslims; Arab American studies and Muslim American studies; cultural studies and media studies; and race, popular culture, and cultural politics. She is the author of Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation After 9/11 (New York University Press, 2012) and co-editor of Arab and Arab American Feminisms: Gender, Violence, and Belonging (Syracuse University Press, 2011) and Between the Middle East and the Americas: The Cultural Politics of Diaspora (University of Michigan Press, 2013). Dr. Alsultany is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she double-majored in women’s studies and political science. She holds a master’s degree in gender studies and feminist theory from the New School for Social Research and a Ph.D. in modern thought and literature from Stanford University.

Larisa Jasarevic is a senior lecturer in global studies at the University of Chicago.. As an anthropologist, she explores questions of bodies, natures, and popular knowledges in contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina. Her current project concerns bees, beekeeping, medicinal properties of nature, and Islamic metaphysics. She is the author of Health and Wealth on the Bosnian Market: Intimate Debt (Indiana University Press, 2017).

Lihi Ben Shitrit is an assistant professor of international affairs at the University of Georgia. Her academic interests include Middle East politics, religion and politics, and women, gender, and politics. Dr. Shitrit is a graduate of Princeton University where she majored in Near Eastern studies. She holds two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. all in political science from Yale University.

Natalie Khazaal is an assistant professor of Arabic at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She studies the role of Arab media in representations of minorities, as well as the role of language and literature in generating media representations. Dr. Khazaal holds a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree both in Arabic studies from Sofia University in Palo Alto, California, and a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is a professor of political science at Northwestern University. Her research interests include international relations; religion and politics; politics of secularism; law and religion; U.S. foreign relations; politics of the Middle East; methods in the study of religion and politics; and contemporary religion. She is the author of The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (Princeton University Press, 2008) and Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton University Press, 2015). Dr. Hurd is an honors graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she majored in government. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University and a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Amy Erica Smith is an associate professor of political science at Iowa State University. Her research explains how citizens around the world interact with and shape their democratic and authoritarian regimes, mobilized by civic and religious groups and ideas. She is the author of Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Dr. Smith is an honors graduate of the University of Texas where she majored in Latin American studies. She holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University in Ithaca New York, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Pittsburgh.