Participant Info
- First Name
- Alissa
- Last Name
- Walter
- Country
- United States
- State
- WA Washington
- waltera@spu.edu
- Affiliation
- Seattle Pacific University
- Website URL
- Keywords
- Middle East, Iraq, Women and Gender, Gulf War, Iraq War, Urban History, Egypt, Cairo, Copts, Baghdad, Sanctions, refugees, forced migration, human trafficking
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- PhD
- PhD
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
I earned a PhD in Middle Eastern History from Georgetown University. My dissertation, “The Ba‘th Party in Baghdad: State-Society Relations through Wars, Sanctions, and Authoritarian Rule, 1950-2003” examines how ‘ordinary people’ in Baghdad experienced life under Saddam Hussein. I study state-society relations, looking at ways that both the regime and citizens tried to use leverage against one another to accomplish their goals. Specific topics include: food rations, the humanitarian impact of sanctions (1990-2003), public housing policies in Baghdad, crime and policing under Saddam, prostitution and sex work, and other topics that fall under the heading of ‘social history.’
Additionally, I have a graduate certificate in refugees and humanitarian emergencies from Georgetown University, and I have published on topics related to refugees, forced migration, and human trafficking in the Middle East.
My M.A. thesis focused on the history of women in the Egyptian Coptic and Evangelical communities. This was for an M.A. in Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
- Recent Publications
“Rural Women, Resistance, and the Egyptian Family Planning Program, 1965-1980,” Journal of Women’s History 30, no. 2 (Summer 2018)
“Diaries of Iraqi Soldiers: Views from Inside Saddam’s Army,” International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies, with co-author Joseph Sassoon. (forthcoming, Summer 2018)
“The Iraqi Occupation of Kuwait: New Historical Perspectives,” with co-author Joseph Sassoon, Middle East Journal 71, no. 4 (Autumn 2017): 607-682.
“Petitioning Saddam: Voices from the Iraqi Archives,” chapter in Truth, Silence, and Violence in Emerging States: Histories of the Unspoken (Routledge Human Rights Series, 2018)
- Media Coverage
- Social Media
- Country Focus
- Iraq, Egypt
- Expertise by Geography
- Middle East
- Expertise by Chronology
- Modern, 20th century
- Expertise by Topic
- Family, Gender, Local & Regional, Politics, Urban History, Women
