Nour Ali

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies; minor, Spanish Language, Literature, & Culture; minor, Islamic Studies ‘21

Nour Ali would like to thank all of the wonderful staff and students in the Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies (CMENAS) and Global Islamic Studies Center (GISC) programs for all of their help these last few years. As an Iraqi-Iranian-American, she appreciated learning about her own culture while simultaneously learning about so many others. While she has a major in CMENAS and a minor in Islamic Studies, she also has another minor in Spanish Language & Literature. This upcoming fall, Nour will be pursuing her Masters in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Lama Baddah

BS Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BS International Studies ‘21

Lama had the opportunity to research trends in Women's Public Health among the Middle Eastern community in Southeast Michigan. She is planning on working for City Year- Detroit after graduation.

Kaitlyn Bell

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BA International Studies; BA Political Science ‘21

Kaitlyn Bell is from Saginaw, Michigan and majored in Political Science and International Studies as well as Middle Eastern & North African Studies. During her time and the University of Michigan she studied abroad in Palestine and Jordan. She also studied in Washington, D.C. with the Michigan in Washington Program and interned with a United Nations representative there. After graduation she is studying Arabic with the Critical Language Scholarship Program and she hopes to attend graduate school in the region.

Mekarem Eljamal

MA International and Regional Studies, Middle Eastern & North African Studies Specialization; MA Urban & Regional Planning ‘21

Mekarem Eljamal is graduating with dual degrees in Middle Eastern & North African Studies and Urban & Regional Planning. While at Michigan, she was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship (2020-2021), the Weiser Emerging Democracies Fellowship (2018), Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies (WCED) research funding (2020), and International Institute (II) funding (2019 & 2020). Mekarem presented her research exploring Israeli property law lineages at the 2020 Middle East Studies Association conference. Using the II and WCED research funding, Mekarem travelled to Haifa in December 2019 to visit several archives containing materials about the city's urban development, which enabled her to complete her thesis entitled, "From Medina to Eir: Lineages of Urban Development in Downtown Haifa," which looks at what values and priorities guided redevelopment in Haifa from the Mandate era through 1968. Mekarem will be continuing her research and academic career at Columbia University in the fall where she will begin her doctoral program in urban planning.

Nicholas Kolenda

MA International and Regional Studies, Middle Eastern & North African Studies Specialization ‘21

Nicholas Xavier Kolenda is an MA student in Middle Eastern & North African Studies, and the title of his thesis is "Ḥubb al-Waṭan min al- Īmān: The Greater Syrian, Christian, Proto-nationalist Bourgeoisie and Ecumenical Ideas of a Greater Syria, 1850-1884". He was a Rackham Merit Awardee and received FLAS both from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan for Intermediate and Advanced Persian respectively. Nicholas also had the pleasure of presenting his thesis at a Lightning Talk with the International Institute on 3/26/2021. Nicholas is looking forward to taking a gap year before hopefully returning to academia for a PhD.

Daniel Lightfoot

MA International and Regional Studies, Middle Eastern & North African Studies Specialization ‘21

Daniel's thesis (in progress) focuses on Enlightenment moral philosophy in translation during the 19th century Arab nahḍa ('awakening'), with a focus on Buṭrus al-Bustānī's encyclopedia. Daniel was a Summer 2020 and AY 2020-21 FLAS fellow (Arabic). Daniel also published a number of translations of moral philosophical articles by the French Encyclopédistes.

Seif Saqallah

MA International and Regional Studies, Middle Eastern & North African Studies Specialization; JD University of Michigan Law School ‘20

Seif Saqallah graduated from U-M in 2017 and continued his interests in law, religions, and languages. In 2020, he graduated with a dual J.D. in law and an M.A. Masters in Modern Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Combining Arabic and Hebrew: Shalom 'alaykhem, wa rahmat Allahi wa barakatuh. Peace be with you, and the mercy and blessings of God.

Jason Semaya

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BA Political Science; BA History; BA Judaic Studies; Honors ‘21

The next chapter in Jason’s academic journey will be law school! He will likely be returning home to New York City to study law in the Fall, and he looks forward to this difficult path ahead. Jason would like to thank his family, friends, and many professors and instructors along the way for helping him get to this point. Jason truly would not have been able to accomplish this much without you, and he is excited to apply what he has learned through all of you, as well as through this department, in the future!

Charlotte Abrams

BA History; minor, Middle Eastern and North African Studies ‘21
 

Ali Al Momar

MA Middle Eastern & North African Studies ‘20
 

John Ballouz

BS Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BS Biomolecular Science ‘21
 

Abigail Choffel

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BA Political Science; BA International Studies ‘21
 

Shon Harris

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies; BA International Studies ‘21
 

Feras Hassan

BA Middle Eastern & North African Studies ‘21
 

If you are graduating this year, and would like to have your bio and photo in addition to your name, please email cmenas@umich.edu.