I am currently Visiting Faculty (Remote), Kathmandu University-Nepal Centre for Contemporary Studies (KU-NCCS), Lalitpur and Kavre, Nepal, where I was onsite from September 2025 to August 2026.  I have been remote, back in the United States, since August 2026.  Before that, I was Associate Professor (2010-2025) and Assistant Professor (2001-2010) in the Department of Political Science, Center for Jewish Studies, and for part of that time in the Center for Global Islamic Studies and the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (2001-2025).  I am a political ethnographer, political sociologist, and cross-disciplinarily trained scholar of modern Middle East and North Africa (MENA) politics with attention to society, culture, and historical methods.  My recent co-edited volume, Beyond the Death of God: Religion in 21st Century International Politics, was published with the University of Michigan Press (2022).  My most recent work has turned to Asia with a book project, contracted with the German private academic publisher, De Gruyter Press, on Asian perspectival politics as found in recent popular Asian film and television (in English translation).

I have served on the Fulbright National Committee for the United States (U.S.) Student Fulbright Program.  I have been Visiting Scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University; and Visiting Researcher or Visiting Scholar, Visiting Research Fellow, and Honorary Visiting Fellow at other universities, particularly in Israel (HUJI-Political Science and TAU-Sociology and Anthropology), France (Groupe d’analyse des politiques publiques, Ecole Normale Supérieure-Cachan, Cachan), and England (Birkbeck College of Law, University of London).  I received national-level dissertation grants or fellowships from the National Science Foundation (Washington, D.C., Law and Social Science Program, SES #9906136, Woods, Co-PI), and the Social Science Research Council (New York, NY, two fellowships and a competitive workshop).  I received a Certificate of Recognition in 2016 from the U.S. Fulbright Foundation and the U.S. Department of State for three years of service on the Fulbright National Committee for the U.S. Student Fulbright Program.  I have since served an additional year on that committee (as Sohn, or before 2017, Woods, same Social Security number and birthdate, as noted on my transcripts).

I am expert in comparative and international religion and politics, culture and institutions, and my early published works relate to the political sociology of law in Israel on religious-secular and state-society dimensions (e.g., judicial institutions in comparative and international perspective—I am not an attorney), including attention to the women’s movement and orthodox religious constituencies.  As a professor of twenty-five years, reaching the rank of Associate Professor, I have been involved in organizing and professional service at a high academic level in my university and at the national level.  I wrote countless professional research talks, lectures, and additional writing, editing, and organizing.  Much of that work constitutes speech writing as well.  I have published over ninety academic works of various types, fewer although significant works in ISI journals, and more in other categories.  I have chapters in books published by Cambridge University Press, one an edited volume on Judaism and law and the other on socio-political boundaries; Stanford University Press, a volume edited by Sarat and Scheingold on cause lawyering; New York University Press, and more.  I have been editor or co-editor of two journal special issues or mini-symposia: Religions (plus one article, MDPI 2025/2026) and Political Research Quarterly (plus two articles, 2009).  I was part of a special issue of Droit et Société, the top law and society journal in France.  I have published in those journals as well as in Field Methods; Studies in Law, Politics, and Society, and others.  I have been part of editing and writing for the academic blogosphere at high analytical levels and at rhetorical levels for speedier consumption, particularly for the online political science magazine (“portal”) based in Bristol, United Kingdom: E-International Relations. 

I am happily located in a city near rural U.S.A. with extensive farming cultures as well as Old West and Native American history.  I resigned my post at the University of Florida after twenty-four years, in September 2025.  I spent September 2025 – August 2026 onsite at Kathmandu University, Nepal.  In Nepal, I taught courses for the Department of Languages and Mass Communication, including full-semester courses in international political communication and media, and social science for media studies.  I gave two short courses (Reading Qualitative Social Science in English, and Epistemologies), and several introductory comments or talks.  I conducted research on my forthcoming book on Asian perspectival politics as presented in popular film and television.  The selection draws from film and some television from Kazakhstan, Nepal, India, and East to the Pacific Ocean, including Chinese, South Korean, and other East Asian works.  The project is focused in the area of religion and politics, particularly ritual politics and performativity in film as expressions or voicing of, and messaging regarding, Asian perspectives, values, and cultural norms.  I have identified perspectives, values, and norms that appear to be shared widely, although some reflect contestation.  In most cases, the film and television works selected on the variables of ritual politics, performativity, and important Asian perspectives appear to be used to present or to posit shared (often traditional) value systems that begin in specific locales but may have resonance across large portions of Asia.  I have found a trend of a moderate Asian Romanticism in much of the film and television (in the literary sense and by contrast to skepticism); as well as an interesting emphasis on traditional heroes, both male and female.

At the University of Florida, I served as Chair of the Academic Policy Council for one year and member for two additional years; member of the Senate Steering Committee; Faculty Senator; member of the University Curriculum Committee; member of the Infrastructure Council; member of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee; Chair of the Curriculum Committee, Department of Political Science, for 10 years; and as the first-ever Undergraduate Coordinator for the Center for Jewish Studies for two years.  I have many years of experience in higher education (e.g., a form of adult education) curriculum development.  I am skilled at narrative-building and certain discursive or semiotic issues involved in the construction of narratives for communication.

As Academic Policy Council Chair, Senate Steering Committee member, and Faculty Senator, I was involved with helping to provide (and sometimes to pen) faculty perspectives regarding new state regulations as well as communicating them effectively to colleagues in a diplomatic manner.  We managed policy issues that ranged from defining causes and processes for student expulsion to defining processes for faculty input on certain academic procedural issues, assisting departments in procedural questions regarding student re-enrollment in large courses, and many subjects involving the university’s relationship with the state (as a state university).  We helped to write specific policies and contributed to a few programmatic developments.  We oversaw transitions to new online platforms and faculty governance issues, as well as contributing faculty perspectives on matters relating to university administration relations with the faculty union.  As University Curriculum Committee member, we oversaw the approval of many courses for new course numbers, additions to our disciplinary degree programs, removal of a few degree programs, and similar.  Course numbers became uniform across the state, and our university was considered the “flagship” university of the state.  Thus, our work on the University Curriculum Committee was important in helping to guide the university and college system within the state in course development.  It was a detailed and somewhat painstaking work.  It was rewarding to have the outcome of great course programming, university- and state-wide.  I was able to serve on three levels of curriculum committee: university, college, and departmental.

As Curriculum Committee Chair for my department, I was responsible to conduct extensive or detailed online programming paperwork at the university for university- and state-level requirements regarding the establishment of new courses.  That work included communication with faculty on an annual and individual basis regarding new university or state requirements, procedures, and techniques for handling the online platform and forms.  Courses are personal for many faculty.  Thus, that service position required diplomacy in the face of faculty objections to the new programming requirements, some of which changed annually.  I was successful in processing new course numbers or approvals for several dozen courses over the ten years that I served in that role.

As Undergraduate Coordinator for two years for the Center for Jewish Studies, I increased the number of certificate and degree seekers, organized functions, and arranged and processed certain online paperwork for certificate and degree completions.  As a faculty member, I worked with Jewish, Muslim, and Christian students who sought support to organize public talks or panels, as well as in-class activities.  I served as Co-Coordinator and Founder of the Near and Middle East Working Group, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, some of which work contributed to the later establishment of a Center for Global Islamic Studies under different leadership (I had sought the establishment of a Center for Middle East Studies, which did not correspond with programming priorities at the time).  As noted, I was affiliate in the Center for Jewish Studies, the Center for Global Islamic Studies, and for many years in the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research.  I taught courses in the Department of Political Science, courses listed in one or more of the three centers, and I had some courses cross-listed in the Department of Sociology and Criminology or the Department of Religion.  I taught one university-program course on identities, film, and fiction, identified on my curriculum vitae as a Quest 1 UF Humanities course; as well as courses in political fiction and film for Political Science.

I spent many years teaching courses on MENA, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Women and Politics in MENA or in Israel, Israeli politics, religion and politics in comparative and international context, and similar.  In those courses, I was able to teach to a multi-ethnic and multi-religious student body of a wide range of nationalities regarding a conflict zone to which many had (sometimes opposing) affinities.  I made it my career goal to coach them to read analytical research articles on their own terms so that the students would have a basis upon which to communicate with one another inside and outside the classroom.  (We had a diverse composition of students in those terms; I was asked by certain university officials to teach and support the students in such a way that we would not have the disruptions that some other university campuses were experiencing.)  Almost all of the students were willing and happy to do so, culminating in greater analytical skills as well as thoughtful conversations regarding controversial topics. 

My Ph.D. is an Interdisciplinary degree (IDS—Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Modern Middle East Politics track, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2001).  My M.A. and B.A. are in Religion, focusing on Islam and Judaism, and Judaism and Islam, respectively (University of Florida, 1991, 1989).

As an active part of the academic blogosphere, I contributed to thinking through and helping to construct ways to write about academic and social-theoretical topics for quicker consumption in both analytical and more rhetorical forms.  I was “Curator” (e.g., a British term for what we call in the U.S. a special guest editor or columnist) and Founder of a blog for E-International Relations (e-ir.org).  The blog was entitled, “Subaltern States.”  It focused on grassroots, cultural variables, and society-level, socio-political questions or engagement with national or local-level government institutions.  I produced bi-weekly analytical or rhetorical essays, and/or I edited guest contributions from at home and abroad, for 2.5 years (2016-2019).

I have spent a significant amount of time in libraries as a researcher, including some time in national or international archives overseas (UNESCO, Paris, France; Israel Central Bureau of Statistics; Israel High Court Archive; and several smaller social movement or religious center archives).  At the University of Florida, I provided book and digital purchase recommendations to the Political Science librarian, through my course reserves and directly, related to my regional and theoretical areas of knowledge; most of them were purchased for our library shelves.  As an undergraduate, I spent one semester coding and cataloguing library items for the small, topic-specific library of the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, University of Florida, part of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF-IFAS). 

At the level of personal development and skills, as an undergraduate, I was a secretarial and clerical assistant, as well as hotel night auditor, clerk, and receptionist (including telephone and some telephone switchboard work).  I enjoyed these jobs very much and learned from them what I could regarding business communication with students, faculty, and the public.  I was trained and served as a grant reviewer within the academic department in question (Biochemistry); I also processed payroll.  In and immediately after Master-level graduate school, I maintained a personal business editing papers for students and some faculty.  In graduate school at the doctoral level I was a student leader, and I co-founded and was President of a national academic association’s graduate student organization (GSO).  In both undergraduate (Phi Beta Kappa) and high school years, I was a student leader and founded or co-founded some student organizations in addition to being high school newspaper Editor, Assistant Editor, and member of Mu Alpha Theta (national) and Key Club (related to Florida Blue Key). I was on various Dean’s, President’s, or honors lists in undergraduate and high school years.

I have language skills to advanced-intermediate level in French and Hebrew.  I studied Arabic to advanced-intermediate level as text and Arabic linguistics (Form XVIII—I have very little spoken ability, and I have not used the written language in some time although I am skilled at certain types of translations).  Due to family experience and exposure to both Eastern and Western languages as a child (Filipino, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, etc.), in addition to professional activities with faculty and students from a wide range of national origins, I am comfortable working productively with people who speak a variety of languages.  I was exposed to most Western European languages as well.  I have first- and second-year training in several additional languages, which similarly contributes to my appreciation for language and ease with having many languages in my environment.  I am able to live abroad even in contexts in which I do not speak the language.

I am a cancer survivor.  On very rare occasion, I need to leave the room to clear my nose.  I am a little more sensitive than the average young person to infections coming into a room; they cause me to sneeze (I very rarely contract them).  I consider the doctors who helped me through it over the course of some decades to be Saints.  They assisted me in Mayo-Clinic-influenced, at-home modalities, particularly emphasizing a natural diet, regular moderate exercise, meditation or similar, and sleep.  I have been athletic all of my life, which helps.  I am still rebuilding my bone marrow and bone strength with beans, beef broth, milk and dairy, corn, and some meats (light on the meats because I am a Buddhist).  To remain in condition and good health, I maintain a light regimen of calisthenics, yoga, some Tai Chi, and walking.

While I have lived in large metropolitan areas, including Paris, I am a farm girl at heart.  I was born in central Alaska and grew up on or near farmland in Vermont and Florida.  We raised chickens, large dogs, we kept one cow and a few calves, and we trained and boarded a few horses and ponies.  I was involved in Pony Club in Vermont and 4-H in Florida.  I trained in dressage to intermediate and in hunter jumper to advanced or beginning expert.  In 4-H, in addition to a five-year horse-training project, I maintained projects in sewing/tailoring, dog training, and I received an award for a co-written and co-presented speech at a state-wide conference.  I enjoy being located in a place with proximity to farming and rural life.  My high school chamber choir (a jazz Ensemble and madrigal choir) won state-wide awards on two occasions while I was part of it. I trained in swimming as a child through the American Red Cross system.  I assisted in collecting timber for our house, primarily heated by wood-burning stove.  We had a very large vegetable garden and learned basics of planting.  I read most of our wide collection of 19th and 20th century American and British English literature, including a nearly complete set of children’s classics such as Treasure Island; and a few works in translation from Russian (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pasternak), French (Dumas, Hugo, Voltaire), Spanish (Cervantes), Polish (Mickiewicz), and Filipino (Rizal).  I trained in classical piano from age five and was admitted, by audition, to study concert piano in university.  After a year of classical piano training at the university level, I changed to my current course.

Politically, I am a patriotic American dedicated to the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I am a devotée of the Federalist Papers and the New Hampshire state motto, “Live Free or Die.” I appreciate the Freedom, independence, and domestic handiwork traditions of Old West women, and those from other traditional and modern societies. I follow Mahayana Buddhism (Tibetan form), a moderate- and modern-orthodox form of Zen Buddhism, and the Dalai Lama. My favorite songs growing up were, “Free To Be You And Me” and “America The Beautiful.” The first works I read on my own were Dr. Seuss, A. A. Milne, and C. S. Lewis—which quickly expanded to comparative religions.

Thank you very much for reading!