PHILADELPHIA – Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is proud to announce its SPME Fellows for 2013-14, Sanaz Alasti, Gabriel Brahm, Nimrod Hagiladi, Veronica Slootsky, Ariel Zellman, and Maor Shani.

SPME is an organization dedicated to the non-politicized study of the Middle East, and is interested in supporting high level academic work in the humanities and social sciences by scholars who promote this kind of work. Expanding SPME as a source of research and scholarship on the Middle East, and related issues, the fellowships provide an opportunity for young scholars to present and publish their work in academic settings, benefit from the mentoring of academics who are established in their respective disciplines, and to identify settings in which they can speak and present their work. 

“We are very fortunate to have these scholars as SPME fellows,” said Richard Cravatts, President of SPME, “each of whom brings a body of expertise critical to addressing the contemporary problems confronting the Middle East today. All have demonstrated rigorous scholarship in their fields and we are proud to have them as part of the SPME community.”

The SPME Fellows

Sanaz Alasti, JD, SJD

Dr. Sanaz Alasti is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at Lamar University, Texas State University System. She is the author of several books on criminal law, the criminal justice system, comparative punishment practices and rituals, and criminology.

Gabriel Noah Brahm, Jr, PhD

Gabriel Brahm received his PhD and MA degrees in Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of California—Santa Cruz, and his BA in English from UCLA.

Nimrod Hagiladi, PhD

Nimrod Hagiladi is currently a Taub-Schusterman Post-Doctoral fellow at the Taub Center for Israel Studies for the 2012-2013 Academic Year. In the past years he was a teaching fellow in the History Department at The Hebrew University.

Maor Shani

Maor Shani is a PhD Fellow for Psychology at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), Germany. His research interests are within the fields of political and peace psychology.

Veronica Slootsky, MD

Dr. Veronica Slootsky graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in Biological Sciences and Writing. She obtained her medical degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is currently a resident in Psychiatry at the George Washington University School of Medicine.

Ariel Zellman is a post-doctoral fellow at the Taub Center for Israel Studies at New York University. He recently received his doctorate in political science from Northwestern University

Further information about the SPME Fellows is available at: https://spme.org/fellows.html.