AIYS Expert Guide
Yemen is no longer the terra incognita it was before the Arab Spring, but there is still a great deal of ignorance in America about Yemeni history, culture and religion.
A major goal of AIYS is to promote accurate and timely information about Yemen and its people. Many of the scholars associated with AIYS have extensive knowledge of Yemen.
This list serves as a guide to scholars who are willing to speak from their expertise. AIYS maintains this list as a resource guide for all scholars of Yemen. If you would like to be included in this list, please email the webshaykh.
Journalists are welcome to contact the scholars below individually. Any institution or university interested in having one of our members speak should contact the scholar directly.
Expert Guide
Dr. Najwa Adra
Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
http://www.najwaadra.net
• Dancing in Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula
• Intangible heritage
• Tribal identity and customary law
• Women and Sustainable development
• Women's Literacy
• Women’s oral poetry
Dr. Abdulrahman Aldubaie
as_aldubaie@yahoo.com
• Botany of Yemen
• Education in Yemen
Dr. Laurent Bonnefoy
http://www.sciencespo.fr/ceri/fr/cerispire-user/7230/0
Researcher, CERI/Sciences Po Paris
• International Relations
• Islamism and Salafism
• Political parties
Anna Bukhari, MSc, MA
Researcher/Affiliated to NISIS Leiden
and Eindhoven University of Technology
info@annabukhari.nl
www.annabukhari.nl
• Architecture
• Islam
• Material Culture
• Mosques and tombs (20th, 21th century)
• Photography
• Sacred space
Dr. Giovanni Canova
https://unior.academia.edu/GiovanniCanova
Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale"
• Banu Hilal in Yemeni oral tradition
• Honey and beekeeping in Yemen
• Folktales of Yemen
Dr. Sheila Carapico
Professor of Political Science and International Studies, emerita
University of Richmond
https://polisci.richmond.edu/faculty/scarapic/
• Civic Activism
• Development in Yemen
• International Relations of Yemen
• Political system
Dr. Arianna D’Ottone
Researcher of Arabic Language and Literature
Sapienza Universita di Roma
arianna.dottone@uniroma1.it
https://uniroma1.academia.edu/ariannaDOTTONE
• Codicology of Yemeni Manuscripts
• Numismatics
• Palaeography of Yemeni Manuscripts
Dr. Andre Gingrich
Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Professor of Anthropology, University of Vienna
https://oeaw.academia.edu/AndreGingrich
• Astronomy, folk (northern Yemen and Asir)
• Social organization, northern Khawlan
• Sa'da province
• Tribal history of northwest Yemen
Dr. Najam Haider
Professor of Religion
Barnard College, NY
https://religion.columbia.edu/content/najam-haider
• Early history of Yemen
• Islamic Law
• Zaydi Islam
• Islam in Yemen
Dr. Bernard Haykel
Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Director, Institute for Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia
https://nes.princeton.edu/people/bernard-haykel
• History of Yemen
• Islamic Law
• Islamism
• Politics
• Zaydi Islam
Dr. Ingrid Hehmeyer
Associate Professor, History of Science and Technology, Ryerson University, Toronto
http://mediaspotme.com/ryerson/ingrid-hehmeyer
• Folk astronomy
• History of water technology
• History of agriculture and irrigation
• Traditional Medicine
Dr. David Hollenberg
Assistant Professor of Arabic language and Religious Studies, University of Oregon;
Director, Yemen Manuscript Digitization Initiative (ymdi.uoregon.edu).
• Scholasticism and Manuscript Culture in Northern Yemen
• Zaydi Islam
Dr. Ed Keall
Emeritus Curator, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, Associate Professor, Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, Director, Canadian Archaeological Mission
of the Royal Ontario Mission in Yemen
( edk@rom.on.ca)
• Excavating a medieval Islamic city in Yemen (mosques included),
Zabid, AD 800-1900.
• Traditional architecture and mosque styles of the city of Zabid,
Tihama coastal plain of Yemen.
• A Bronze Age Megalith culture on the Red Sea Coast of Yemen.
• Prehistoric Painted Rock Art in the foothills of the Yemeni highlands
• A visitor facility and archaeological study center in the
old military barracks compound in the city of Zabid.
Dr. Lamya Khalidi
Researcher
French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
CEPAM, University of Nice, Sophia Antipolis
lamya.khalidi@cepam.cnrs.fr
http://www.cepam.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article2435&lang=fr
• Afro- and Inter-Arabian exchange spheres
• Archaeology, Pleistocene and Holocene
• Lithic Technology in Arabia
• Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology
• Prehistoric Yemen
Helen Lackner
Independent Research and Development Social anthropologist
Over 40 years' experience in Yemen
helenlackner@yahoo.com
• Agriculture and fisheries projects (Design, implementation and evaluation)
• Rural Development
• Social structure changes and their causes
• Water management in 20th and 21st Centuries
• Current political context
Dr. Krista Lewis
Professor of Anthropology
Appalachian State University
https://anthro.appstate.edu/directory/dr-krista-lewis
Anthropology
Archaeology of Yemen
Prehistoric Yemen
Pre-Islamic Yemen Culture
Archaeology, Iron Age and Himyarite
Ancient Agriculture and Environment
Dhamar Region
Trade, Red Sea and Indian Ocean
Dr. Samuel Liebhaber
Middlebury College
slieb@middlebury.edu
http://sites.middlebury.edu/mahripoetry/
• Language Diversity and Ideology in Southern Arabia
• The Mahri Tribes of Yemen and Oman: Language, Poetry, History
• Vernacular (“Popular”) Poetry from the Arabian Peninsula
Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Author and independent scholar
http://www.mackintosh-smith.com/
• Ibn Baṭūṭṭa
• Qāt
• Ṣan‘ā', Old city
• San‘ānī dialect
• Travel in Yemen
Dr. Daniel Mahoney
Guest Researcher, Institute for Social Anthropology,
Austrian Academy of Sciences
daniel.mahoney@oeaw.ac.at
• History of Yemen
• State-tribe relations (7th-19th centuries)
• Medieval and early modern historiography
• Archeology (Bronze Age to Islamic period)
• Dhamar region
Dr. Mohammed Maraqten
Lecturer at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg,
Seminar für Sprachen und Kulturen des Orients, Semitistik, Germany
Epigrapher of the American Foundation for the Study of Man (AFSM), USA
https://uni-hd.academia.edu/MohammedMaraqten
• Ancient South Arabian Inscriptions
• Ancient Yemeni Minuscule inscriptions
• Pre-Islamic Yemen Cultural History
• Irrigation systems in ancient Yemen
• Awām Temple/Maḥram Bilqīs project (AFSM)
Dr. Anne Meneley
Trent University
http://www.trentu.ca/anthropology/meneley.php
• competitive sociability among Yemeni women
• embodied religion
• ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen
• food and intercultural relationships
• qat and exchange
Dr. Flagg Miller
Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Davis
http://religiongradgroup.ucdavis.edu/people/profile/239
• Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula
• History of Yemen
• Islam
• Literature and Poetry
• Tribalism
Dr. Nathalie Peutz
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Program in Arab Crossroads Studies, New York University Abu Dhabi
https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/arts-and-humanities/faculty/nathalie-peutz.html
• conservation and development
• ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen
• heritage (tangible, intangible and 'world' heritage in Yemen)
• migration
• Socotra: history, contemporary society, politics, and language
Marjorie Ransom
Retired diplomat
• Traditional Silver jewelry of Yemen
Dr. Noha Sadek
Indepedent scholar
• Architecture
• Art and material culture
• History of Yemen (9th-17th centuries)
• History of Ta‘izz
• Women in Yemen’s history
Dr. Sabine Schmidtke
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
https://www.ias.edu/scholars/schmidtke
• Zaydi Islam
• Islam in Yemen
• Manuscript Studies
• Libraries History
Dr. Charles Schmitz
Department of Geography, Towson University
http://pages.towson.edu/cschmitz
• Economic Policy
• Political Economy
• Sociology of Yemeni Society
• Tribe and State Relations
Dr. Hanne Schönig
Academic coordinator, researcher,
Centre for Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Martin Luther University
Halle-Wittenberg, Halle/Saale (Germany)
http://www.zirs.uni-halle.de/zirs-hanne-schoenig.php
• Ethnobotany
• Magic
• Traditional medicine
Dr. Mohammed Sharafuddin
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Sanaa University
masharafuddin@gmail.com
•Tribal Poetry
• Yemeni History
• Yemeni Literature
• Sufism
Dr. G. Rex Smith
Emeritus Professor of Arabic
University of Manchester
grexsmith@yahoo.co.uk
• Arabic, Yemeni
• History, Islamic era
• Literature, Yemeni
• Rasulid Yemen
Emily Sumner
Graduate Student, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Minnesota
https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/sumne036
-
Modern Yemeni Literature
-
The Yemeni Zāmil
Dr. Lucine Taminian
Independant Scholar
lucine.taminian@gmail.com
• Poetry
• Production of Knowledge
• Memory and Identity
• Urban cultures
Dr. Michel Tuchscherer
http://iremam.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article59
michel.tuchscherer@wanadoo.fr
• Coffee
• Hammams and bathing traditions in Yemen
• History of Yemen (16th-19th C.)
• Trade in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean (16th-19th C.)
Dr. Nancy Um
Getty Research Institute
• Visual, built, and material culture in Yemen
• History of the port of Mocha (al-Mukha)
• Trade of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (15th - 19th C)
• European merchants and travelers in Yemen (17th - 19th C)
Dr. Daniel Martin Varisco
Guest Researcher, Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences
• Coffee and Qāt (Catha edulis) in Yemen
• Development in Yemen
• History of Yemen
• Rasulid Yemen
• Islam in Yemen
• Traditional Agriculture in Yemen
• Water Issues in Yemen
Dr. Delores Walters
Independent scholar
• Health Care
• Social Disparities in Yemen
• Women's Empowerment
Dr. Janet Watson
Leadership Chair for Language at Leeds
j.c.e.watson@leeds.ac.uk
• Mahri dialect
• Ṣan‘ā' dialect
Topics
Afro- and Inter-Arabian exchange (Khalidi)
Agriculture (Hehmeyer, Lackner, Lewis,Varisco)
Agriculture and fisheries projects (Design, implementation and evaluation) (Lackner)
Al-Qa’ida in Yemen (Miller)
Anthropology (Adra, Caton, Lewis, Meneley, Varisco)
Astronomy, folk (Gingrich, Hehmeyer, Varisco)
Arabic dialects in Yemen (Liebhaber)
Arabic (medieval Yemeni) (Smith)
Archaeology of Yemen
(Keall, Khalidi, Lewis, Mahoney, Maraqten, McCorriston)
Archaeology, Pleistocene and Holocene (Khalidi)
Architecture of Yemen
(Bukhari, Keall, Sadek, Um)
Art and Material Culture (Peutz, Sadek)
Banu Hilal in Yemeni oral tradition (Canova)
Botany of Yemen (Aldubaie, Schönig)
Civic Activism (Carapico)
Coffee (Tuchscherer, Varisco)
Dance (Adra)
Development in Yemen
(Adra, Carapico, Lackner, Peutz, Varisco)
Dhamar Region (Lewis, Mahoney)
Dialect (Ṣan‘ānī) (Mackintosh-Smith, Watson)
Education in Yemen (Aldubaie)
Economic Policy (Schmitz)
Ethnographic Fieldwork
(Adra, Meneley, Peutz, Varisco)
Folktales of Yemen (Canova)
Food (Meneley)
Hammams and Bathing Traditions (Tuchscherer)
Health Care (Walters)
History, Bronze Age (Keall)
History, 16th-19th c (Tuchscherer)
History, Islamic (Haider, Haykel, Mahoney, Miller, Sadek, Sharafuddin, Smith, Varisco)
Honey and beekeeping in Yemen (Canova)
Intangible Heritage (Adra, Peutz)
International Relations (Bonnefoy, Carapico)
Irrigation (Hehmeyer, Varisco)
Irrigation systems, ancient Yemen (Maraqten)
Islam in Yemen
(Bukhari, Hayder, Haykel, Meneley, Miller, Schmidtke, Varisco)
Islamism and Salafism (Bonnefoy, Haykel)
Library History (Schmidtke)
Literature (Miller, Sharafuddin, Smith)
Literature, Modern (Sumner)
Lithic Technology in Arabia (Khalidi)
Magic (Schönig)
Mahra and Mahri language (Liebhaber, Watson)
Material culture (Bukhari)
Medicine, traditional (Hehmeyer, Schönig)
Memory and identity (Taminian)
Migration (Peutz)
Mocha port (Um)
Mosques and tombs (Bukhari)
Neolithic and Bronze Age Archaeology (Khalidi)
Numismatics (D'Ottone)
Palaeography of Yemeni Manuscripts (D'Ottone, Schmidtke)
Photography (Bukhari)
Poetry (Adra, Liebhaber, Miller, Peutz, Sharafuddin, Sumner, Taminian)
Political Economy (Schmitz)
Political parties (Bonnefoy)
Political system (Carapico, Haykel)
Prehistoric Yemen (Keall, Khalidi, Lewis)
Pre-Islamic Yemen Culture (Maraqten)
Production of knowledge (Taminian)
Qāt (Catha edulis) (Mackintosh-Smith,
Meneley, Varisco)
Rasulids (Mahoney, Smith, Varisco)
Rural Development (Adra, Lackner, Varisco)
Sa'da Province (Gingrich)
Ṣan‘ā', Old City (Mackintosh-Smith)
Scholasticism, Manuscript Culture (Hollenberg)
Silver jewelry (Ransom)
Social Disparities in Yemen (Walters)
Social Organization, north Khawlan (Gingrich)
Social structure change (Lackner)
Sociology of Yemen (Schmitz)
Socotra (Peutz)
South Arabian Inscriptions (Maraqten)
Sufism (Sharafuddin)
Taiz, history (Sadek)
Tihama (Keall, Meneley)
Trade, Red Sea and Indian Ocean
(Lewis, Peutz, Tuchscherer, Um, Varisco)
Travelers to Yemen (Mackintosh-Smith, Um)
Tribalism (Adra, Gingrich, Mahoney,
Miller, Schmitz)
Tribal History of northwest Yemen (Gingrich)
Urban cultures (Taminian)
Water Issues (Hehmeyer, Lackner, Varisco)
Women in Yemen's history (Sadek)
Women, competitive sociability (Meneley)
Women and Sustainable Development (Adra)
Women's Empowerment (Adra, Walters)
Women’s Literacy (Adra)
Yemeni Manuscripts (D'Ottone, Hollenberg,Schmidtke)
Zabīd (Keall, Hehmeyer, Meneley)
Zaydi Islam (Haider, Haykel, Hollenberg, Schmidtke)
