Biography
I am currently a second year M.A. student in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization department. I study Arabic and modern Turkish with French as my research language. I am currently working on my thesis as I continue with my language learning. In my thesis, I examine how smuggling networks between Israel and the Palestinian Territories delegitimizes the concept of a national border and complicates nation-building efforts. The smugglers that transcend the border walls around Gaza and the West Bank reveal the porousness of Israel's border security. At the same time, however, smuggling into the Palestinian Territories from Israel undermines Palestinian economic independence and weakens local markets. I am focusing on the smuggling of foodstuffs, SIM cards, and other portable technologies between Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
In addition to my work as a student, I work as a teaching assistant for the NELC program. I have taught for the Gateway to the Near East course multiple quarters and a class on the Ancient Near East. As a student at UW, I also was named the 2019-2020 Mickey Sreebny Memorial Scholar in Jewish Studies and an Israel Studies Graduate Fellow by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at UW.