Mary Christina Wilson

Current Position

1996–present  

Professor of History, UMass

2005–2006

Visiting Professor, Alfred H. Howell Chair in History and Archaeology, American University of Beirut

Teaching Experience

1991–96

Associate Professor of History, UMass

1988–91

Assistant Professor of History, UMass

1984–88

Visiting Assistant Professor of History, New York University

1982–84

Instructor of History, Harvard University, School of Extension Studies

1982–83

Instructor of History, Wellesley College 

Administrative Experience

2003–04

Director, History Institute, UMass

2003–04

Acting Director, Middle East Studies Program, UMass

1997–2000

Chairman, Department of History, UMass  

1993–96

Graduate Program Director, Department of History, UMass

1992–95

Director, Middle East Studies Program, UMass 

Education

1976–84

Oxford University

D.Phil, Oriental Studies

1968–72

Oberlin College

A.B., History

1970–71

American University of Beirut

junior year   

Books

1993 A Modern Middle Eastern History Reader ed. with Albert Hourani and Philip S. Khoury. London: Tauris, and Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 691. Translated into Arabic in three volumes as al-Sharq al-awsat al-hadith. Damascus: Dar Tlas, 1996. Revised English edition, London: Tauris, 2004.

1987 King Abdullah, Britain and the Making of Jordan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 289. Paperback edition 1990.  Arabic translation, Abd allah wa sharq al-urdunn bayn baritaniyya wa al-hariqah al-sahyuniyya. Damascus: Cadmus Press, 2000. 

Books in Preparation

Damascus and the World: 1840 (working title). An analysis of the ritual murder trial that took place in Damascus in 1840 and of what the trial reveals about Damascene society, French cultural politics, and the place of Damascus in the imagination of the West.  

Syria: A Country History. Under contract with Cambridge University Press. 

Articles

2002 “The Damascus Affair and the Beginnings of France’s Empire in the Middle East” in Modern Middle Eastern Studies: Reappraisals and New Perspectives, edited by Hakan Erdem, Israel Gershoni, and Ursula Wokoeck.  Boulder: Lynne Reiner, 63-74.  

2000 al-Urdunn, the modern period, in Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill, 886-887.  (English and French editions).  

1995 Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan (with Philip S. Khoury) annotated bibliography in The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature (third ed., vol. 1). New York: Oxford University Press, 550-52.  

1994 Jordan: Bread, Freedom, or Both? Current History, Feb: 87-90.  

1991 The Hashemites, Arab Nationalism and the Arab Revolt, in Rashid Khalidi, et al (eds.), The Origins of Arab Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 204-21.  

1990 Abdullah ibn Hussein, in Bernard Reich (ed.), Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Greenwood, 24-32.

1989 Transjordan: The Structure of Cooperation with Britain, in Claus Scharf and Linda Schatkowski Schilcher (eds.), Der Nahe Osten in der Swischenkriegszeit. Die interdependenz politischer, wirtschaftlicher und ideologischer Entwicklung 1918-1939. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 52-64.  

1988  King Abdullah and Palestine, 1921-1948, British Society for Middle East Studies (BRISMES) Bulletin 14: 37-41.  

1987  Jordan's Malaise, Current History, Feb: 73-6 and 84-5.  

1986  A Passage to Independence: King Abdullah and Jordan, 1920-1951 in Edward Ingram (ed.), National and International Politics in the Middle East. London: Frank Cass, 187-205.  

1984 Bibliography of Published Works by A.H. Hourani, International Journal of Middle East Studies 16: 553-63. Updated and reprinted in John Spagnolo, ed., Problems of the Modern Middle East in Historical Perspective. Reading, UK: Ithaca, 1992.  Pp. 287-306. 

Working Papers

Towards a Comparative History of the Middle East Under Mandate, 1920–1948. Radcliffe College, The Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, 1989.  

Reviews

Over forty book reviews in International Journal of Middle East Studies, American Historical Review, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, International History Review, Muslim World, Journal of Palestine Studies, British Society of Middle East Studies Bulletin, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Middle East Report (formerly MERIP). List available on request.

Fellowships and Honors

1996 University of Massachusetts, Faculty Research Fellowship  

1990 University of Massachusetts, Institute for the Advanced Study of the Humanities, Faculty Seminar Fellow  

1988 National Endowment for the Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship (year long)  

1988 Fellow, Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe College (year long)  

1984 American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council, postdoctoral fellowship (year long)  

1984 Honorable Mention, Malcolm H. Kerr dissertation competition in the social sciences, sponsored by Middle East Studies Association (MESA).  

1982 Oberlin College Alumni Fellowship  

1979 Special Research Grant, Oxford University Chest  

1978–80 Special Grant for Dissertation Research, St Antony's College, Oxford 

Professional Activities

2003– Board Member, Syrian Studies Association

2003–2005 Chair, Prize Committee, Syrian Studies Association

2000– Trustee, American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR), Amman, Jordan

1999–  Board Member, Arab Image Foundation, New York, Paris, Beirut 1999-2002 Board Member (elected), Middle East Studies Association  

1999–2002 Chair, Ethics Committee, Middle East Studies Association

1994  Prize Committee, Albert H. Hourani book award, Middle East Studies Association

1992  Program Committee, Ninth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women

1987–93 Book review editor, modern history and politics, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin

1987–88 Organizer and participant, study group of recent scholarship on the modern Middle East, Harvard Center for Middle East Studies

1987  Nominating Committee (elected), Middle East Studies Association