Full-Time Faculty

Kalmanovitz Hall 275

Nora Fisher Onar is associate professor of international studies at the University of San Francisco and academic director of the graduate program in international studies. 

Her research interests include the theory and practice of international relations, social theory, foreign policy analysis, comparative area studies (Turkey/Middle East; Europe; Eurasia), political ideologies, gender, and history/memory. She received her doctorate from Oxford and holds master’s and undergraduate degrees...

Education:
  • DPhil (PhD) in International Relations / Political Science, University of Oxford
  • Master in International Affairs (MIA), Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
  • BS...
Expertise:
  • Empire/Post-colonialism
  • Religion and Politics
  • History, Memory and Politics
  • Turkey/Middle East
  • EU/Europe
Kalmanovitz Hall 160

Aaron J. Hahn Tapper, the Mae and Benjamin Swig Professor in Jewish Studies and the founding Director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice, has been at USF since 2007. An educator for more than two decades, his primary academic interest is the intersection between identity formation, social justice, and marginalized groups.

Aaron completed his PhD in the Religious Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied the History of Religions...

Education:
  • PhD, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • MTS, Harvard Divinity School
  • BA, Johns Hopkins University
Kalmanovitz Hall 149

Aysha Hidayatullah is Associate Professor of Islamic studies and teaches undergraduate courses on Islam, gender, race, and ethics. She received her MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her BA in Women's Studies from Emory University. She began teaching at the University of San Francisco in 2008.

Her research interests include feminist exegesis of the Qur'an; representations of women in early Islamic history; constructions of femininity and...

Education:
  • PhD, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • MA, Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kalmanovitz Hall 162

Oren Kroll-Zeldin is the assistant Director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco where he is also an assistant professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He is the co-editor of This Is Your Song Too: Phish and Contemporary Jewish Identity (Penn State University Press) and author of the forthcoming book Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine (New York University Press). Oren is the co-founder...

Education:
  • California Institute of Integral Studies, PhD in Cultural Anthropology and Social Change
  • California Institute of Integral Studies, MA in Cultural Anthropology and Social Change
  • Skidmore College...
Kalmanovitz Hall 237

Sadia Saeed is a historical sociologist with substantive interests in religion and politics, international human rights, and global inequalities. Her first book Politics of Desecularization: Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2017) examines the contentious relationship between Islam, nationalism, and rights of religious minorities in colonial India and Pakistan. It received the 2016-2017 Book Prize from the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS). Her...

Education:
  • PhD, Sociology, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
  • MA, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
  • BSc (Honors), Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan
Kalmanovitz Hall 272 POLS (Annex)

Stephen Zunes has been at USF since 1995, teaching courses on the politics of the Middle East and other regions, nonviolence, conflict resolution, U.S. foreign policy, and globalization. He served as the founder and first director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program.

A prominent specialist on U.S. Middle East policy, Professor Zunes has presented hundreds of public lectures and conference papers in both the United States and over a dozen foreign countries. He has traveled frequently to the...

Education:
  • PhD, Cornell University
  • MA, Temple University
  • BA, Oberlin College
Expertise:
  • Middle Eastern & North African Politics
  • Peace Studies
  • U.S. Foreign Policy
  • Social Movements