Gokh is a History PhD student studying the history of the modern Middle East. She specialize in race and gender in the Middle East, with a focus on the social history of Yemen. Her current project focuses on the social history of Al-Muhamasheen —Yemen’s marginalized African-diaspora. She seek to understand how the Yemeni revolutions of the 1960s cemented the Muhamasheen’s position on the margins of Yemeni society while these revolutions simultaneously called for the overhaul of the country’s social hierarchy. Through this project, and her previous degrees in Religious Studies, Political Science, and Global Studies, Gokh aims to provide an interdisciplinary case study to better understand race and race relations in the Middle East.
Eric is a doctoral candidate in History specializing in the history of the modern Middle East. He received two B.A.s in History and Political Science from California State University, San Bernardino and an M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Eric’s research interests include the social history of labor and the politics of space in the Persian Gulf and Iran. His dissertation, titled “The Bonds that Bind: Slavery and Familial Relations in the Persian Gulf, 19th and 20th Centuries,” analyzes the lived reality of slavery amidst changing political, economic, and social conditions in the late 19th and 20th century Persian Gulf.
We would also like to give a special thanks to Dr. Juan Cobo Betancourt for creating the page templates used here, providing extensive help trouble-shooting site issues, and introducing us to the digital tools needed to create this project. Thank you, Dr. Cobo!