Heidi Morrison

I am teaching this summer History of Human Rights and the Middle East.

Middle Eastern History

Ph.D. 2009
B.A., University of California Berkeley; M.A. Harvard University

My interest in the Middle East began when I was a high school student and spent a summer in Egypt as a Malcome Kerr Scholar. I traveled with nine other high school students from across the USA along with Ann Kerr, a woman whose solace after the assassination of her husband, president of AUB during the Lebanese Civil War, came from improving US-Arab relations among youth. As an undergraduate I majored in French literature and continued to explore issues of East-West relations through studies of North African francophone literature. Feeling limited, and a bit colonial in approach, by a French language perspective on the Arab World, I began studying Arabic and pursued a MA in Middle Eastern Studies. I am currently working on my dissertation which looks at the concept of childhood and children's rights in 20th century Egyptian history. Did "modern" Egyptian ideas about childhood emerge in relation with western ideas? If not, what are the differences? How can we study children's rights across time? (more...)
I enjoy working with undergraduates and watching them explore new concepts and ways of thinking. I encourage students to email me if they want to talk about their interests in the Middle East.