James Gelvin is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scholar of Middle Eastern history. He has been a faculty member in the department of history at the
University of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University system...
,
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
(UCLA) since 1995 and has written extensively on the history of the modern
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, with particular emphasis on nationalism and the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East.
Gelvin earned his B.A. from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
in 1983, M.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in 1985, and Ph.D.
James Gelvin is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scholar of Middle Eastern history. He has been a faculty member in the department of history at the
University of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University system...
,
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
(UCLA) since 1995 and has written extensively on the history of the modern
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, with particular emphasis on nationalism and the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East.
Biography
Gelvin earned his B.A. from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
in 1983, M.A. from the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University in 1985, and Ph.D. from
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
in 1992.
Before joining the faculty at UCLA, Gelvin taught at the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
(MIT),
Boston CollegeBoston College is a private research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Its name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college and preparatory school in Boston's South End. It is a member of the 568 Group and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...
, and
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
.
He has been a fellow at the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for ScholarsThe Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars , located in Washington, D.C., is a United States Presidential Memorial that was established as part of the Smithsonian Institution by an act of Congress in 1968...
(1999-2000) and the recipient of a U.C. President’s Fellowship in the Humanities (1999-2000). In 2002-3, he was Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Visiting Professor of History at the American University in Beirut.
Teaching Awards
In 1998 Gelvin received the Faculty Excellence Award, presented by the UCLA chapter of Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society.
"Dirty Thirty" project
Gelvin responded to a controversy surrounding the content of his lectures by limiting taping of his class lectures to registered students only.
Works by Gelvin
Books
Articles
“The Politics of Notables Forty Years After,”
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, (June 2006).
“Globalization, Religion, and Politics in the Middle East: The Current Crisis in Historical Perspective,”
Global
Development Studies (Winter 2004/Spring 2005).
“Islamism and Nationalism: Common Roots, Common Destinies,”
Beiruter Blaetter: Mitteilungen des Orient-
Institutes Beirut, 10-11 (March 2004).
“Zionism and the Representation of ‘Jewish Palestine’ at the New York World’s Fair, 1939-1940,”
The
International History Review XXII:1 (March 2000).
"Modernity and Its Discontents: On the Durability of Nationalism in the Arab Middle East,"
Nations and
Nationalism 5:1 (January 1999).
"The League of Nations and the Question of National Identity in the Fertile Crescent," in
World Affairs (Summer
1995).
"The Social Origins of Popular Nationalism in Syria: Evidence for a New Framework," in
International Journal of Middle East Studies (November 1994).
"Demonstrating Communities in Post-Ottoman Syria," in
The Journal of Interdisciplinary History XXV:I (Summer 1994).
External links