I’m an associate professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at SoM. I focus on medieval medicine in the Islamic world as well as colonial and postcolonial medicine, emphasizing issues of race, gender, and sexuality. I’m honored to serve as Vice President of the Chapter on the GROWTH platform alongside Lisa Siraganian (president), Siobhán Cooke (secretary), and Graham Mooney (treasurer). We are at a crucial moment where many of us face direct and constant attacks. I believe the AAUP should serve as a home and resource for all faculty, particularly those who are most vulnerable, and that we require a clear strategy and steady leadership to support the growth of our organization, organize our efforts, and advocate for our rights–especially regarding international, BIPOC, and queer faculty and students. 

I grew up in Egypt, where I learned to organize against autocratic regimes, and came to the US in 2007. Before Hopkins, I was a faculty member at Harvard. I organized with colleagues on campus before and during Trump’s first term, particularly regarding immigration, which earned me an arrest for civil disobedience in 2017. In 2023-2024, I co-chaired, with Katie O’Connor (SOM) the SOM’s Faculty Diversity Council, where we coordinated the faculty’s response to attacks against DEI efforts at the SoM and the doxxing and harassment of faculty, including our former Chief Diversity Officer at the SoM. Last spring, I worked with a small group of faculty and postdocs to successfully mediate the peaceful resolution of the campus encampment. Most recently, Lisa and I have been coordinating a faculty response group assisting students whose visas have been revoked. 

I believe in the necessity of collective action through effective organizing and building spaces rooted in solidarity and generosity. I co-founded the Center for Black, Brown, and Queer Studies in 2019, and directed the Center since then. Over these five years, BBQ+ grew from a reading group to a center that independently raised more $2.5 millions to fund fellowships for minoritized scholars and research on diversity in education. This year, in collaboration with scholars and activists, I co-founded the Center for Progressive Research to foster collaboration and build new progressive solutions based on research and theoretical interventions. 

As vice president, I am committed to working with Lisa, Siobhan, Graham, and AAUP past presidents and officers to help build on what Juliana, François, Photini, and others have accomplished and to ensure a targeted and organized approach that supports all our members, effectively represent our membership, and achieve the goals of our platform.