PhD Candidate
Middle East
I came to Berkeley after completing my Master's in History and two Bachelors' - one in French and one in International Studies - at the University of New Orleans. My research focuses on grape-based alcohol (arak and wine) production and distribution in the Mashriq during the interwar period, examining the particular brand of colonialism of the League of Nations Mandates and the ways the industry was handled by the colonial administrations.
My Master's thesis focuses on a union of grape-growers in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon which formed during the Mandate and whose actions shaped arak and wine policies in the Lebanese government which last into present-day. For my dissertation, I intend to expand upon my current research and include Palestine and Syria, highlighting the nuances in the neocolonial politics between the British and French Mandate powers. I am particularly interested in the ways indigeneity is harnessed and claimed through the environment and the effects of the grape-louse phylloxera as a product of ecological imperialism.
Research Interests
- League of Nations Mandates
- Grape-based Alcohol (Wine & Arak)
- Labor & Capitalism
- Indigeneity
- Neocolonialism
Awards & Fellowships
- Graduate Travel Grant, American Historical Association, 2024
- Williamson Research Grant, Department of History, University of New Orleans, 2023
- History Department Fellowship, University of New Orleans, 2023-2024
Publications
- Translator, French to English:
Defrance, Olivier. “The Awakening of the Sleeping Archives: The Goffinet Archives.” The Congo Free State: What Could Archives Tell Us?, edited by Mathilde Leduc-Grimaldi and Patricia Van Schuylenberg, Bruxelles, Belgium, Peter Lang, 2022.
Education
- MA History (International and Global Studies) - University of New Orleans 2024
Thesis: La Vigne Périssante ? : Wine and Arak in French Colonial Lebanon, 1920-1946
Günter J. Bischof Thesis Award for Excellent Thesis in International and Global Studies - BA International and Global Studies - University of New Orleans 2023
Magna Cum Laude - BA Romance Languages, French - University of New Orleans 2023
Magna Cum Laude
