ABOUT ME

My research explores how ordinary people navigate extraordinary historical moments in the modern Middle East and North Africa, which continue to be shaped by the legacies of colonialism, war, and decolonization.

My first book, Globalizing Morocco: Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State, tells the remarkable story of how Moroccan nationalists took their fight against French and Spanish colonial rule global, building networks from New York to Cairo to win independence in 1956. This was not just about one country's struggle—it shows how activists from the Global South helped create the international order we know today. The book reveals how these transnational campaigns then shaped domestic politics in newly independent Morocco, offering insights into the complex relationship between international activism and nation-building. You can hear me discuss this research in interviews with the New Books Network and Jadaliyya.

This research on transnational networks led me to my current project: how World War II changed North Africa between 1939 and 1945. I am interested less in battles and diplomacy than in how ordinary men and women experienced the war in their daily lives. I bring Muslims, Jews, and European settlers into a single narrative to understand how the war brought people together in unexpected ways, but also created new intercommunal divisions. These changes helped set North Africa on the road to decolonization. At its heart, the project is about the connection between global events and everyday life and how those local experiences helped change the course of history.