Keith David Watenpaugh is an Associate Professor of
Modern Islam, Human Rights and Peace at the University of California, Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

. His current work focuses on the history, theory and practice
of humanitarianism

Humanitarianism

In its most general form, humanitarianism is an ethic of kindness, benevolence and sympathy extended universally and impartially to all human beings. Humanitarianism has been an evolving concept historically but universality is a common element in its evolution...

, primarily in the 20th-century Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.

Works

He is best known for his first book, Being Modern in the Middle East: Revolution, Nationalism, and Colonialism and the Arab Middle Class.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 2006), as well as the 2003 report
“Opening Doors: Academic Conditions and Intellectual Life in Post-War
Baghdad,” which was highly critical of early American cultural and
education policies in post-invasion Iraq.

He is currently working on a book entitled, Bread from Stones: The Middle East and the Making of Modern Humanitarianism.
An excerpt from this work is forthcoming in the American Historical Review

American Historical Review

The American Historical Review is the official publication of the American Historical Association, established in 1895 "for the promotion of historical studies, the collection and preservation of historical documents and artifacts, and the dissemination of historical research." It targets readers...

.

Awards and honors

He was a Jennings Randolph

Jennings Randolph

Jennings Randolph was an American politician from West Virginia. He was a member of the Democratic Party and was the last surviving member of the United States Congress to have served during the first 100 days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.-Early life and career:Randolph was born in...

 Senior Fellow in International Peace at
the United States Institute of Peace

United States Institute of Peace

The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...

 (2008–2009) and serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Middle East Studies

International Journal of Middle East Studies

The International Journal of Middle East Studies is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America , a learned society.-See also:* Edinburgh Middle East Report* Middle East Research and Information Project...

.
In addition, he was the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Distinguished
Visiting Fellow at the Tanner Humanities Center, University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

(2005–2006).

He has also had the CIEE Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, Social Science Research Council

Social Science Research Council

The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...

, Will Rogers

Will Rogers

William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....

 and the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq fellowships; he was the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City and Princeton, New Jersey in the United States, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, endowed with wealth accumulated by the late Andrew W. Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969...

 Post-Doctoral Fellow in Middle East Studies at Williams College

Williams College

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...

in 1998-2000.

Publications

"A Fragile Glasnost on the Tigris" Middle East Report, 228: Fall 2003.http://www.merip.org/mer/mer228/228_watenpaugh.html

"Middle East Brain Drain," National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation - 11/22/2006 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6525557

"Death of Iraq's middle class: The country's best and brightest have
fled, demolishing hope for the country's future" Chicago Sun Times 1/25/2007

"Cleansing the Cosmopolitan City: Historicism, Journalism and the Arab Nation in the Post-Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean,” Social History 30:1 (2005)http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface~db=all~content=a713735504~fulltext=713240930

Being Modern in the Middle East. Princeton University Press, 2006. http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8210.html

“‘A pious wish devoid of all practicability:’ Interwar Humanitarianism, The League of Nations and the Rescue of Trafficked Women and Children in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1920–1927,” American Historical Review, 115:4 (October 2009) forthcoming

External links

Official Website http://religions.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/watenpaugh

USIP Biography http://www.usip.org/specialists/keith-david-watenpaugh