Member Details

Academic Member

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Mostafa Minawi, PhD

Cornell University
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Health Equity/Research Interest

Dr. Minawi’s research focuses on the history of Ottoman imperialism in the Middle East and Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as it relates to the current socio-political conditions in the region. Overall his academic work is informed by three main questions: What do we learn about the history of the Middle East if we were to expand our historical inquiries well beyond the limits of the constructs of area studies? What do we learn when we stop privileging late-19th-century ideas like the “Muslim World” or the “Arab World” in our analysis of social and political histories of the Middle East and North Africa? How can we better understand contemporary complex socio-political realities, if we take into consideration the history of imperialism in the region? Although Dr. Minawi’s current book project is on the Ottoman engagement in trans-imperial competition in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea Basin, it ultimately seeks to provide an understanding of the history of different forms of rule and notions of national sovereignties as a process of often-violent negotiations between Ottoman, European, and African powers at the end of the 19th century, and how this process informs the diverse contemporary social and political formations in the region.

Expertise/Goals

Dr. Minawi is an Associate Professor of History at Cornell University and a leading scholar of Middle Eastern and Islamic History. Leveraging his unique background as an expert in the influence of imperialism on modern Middle Eastern societies, Dr. Minawi has contributed substantially to the service and study of Syrian refugees, collaborating with Cornell colleagues from medicine and law to develop a multi-disciplinary approach to this humanitarian crisis. Dr. Minawi’s goal is to continue to collaborate with colleagues from Cornell’s Medical faculty on a project that targets a population that is in desperate need of medical support, namely members of the queer refugee populations in Lebanon. Over the past decade, Dr. Minawi has kept abreast of the struggle for human rights for the LGBTQ+ communities in the Middle East and has come to know the particular challenges of members of this community who also inhabit the intersectional positionality of being members of the forcibly displaced populations living in Lebanon and Turkey. Through his involvement with the LGBTQ+ community and his connections with people working with NGOs providing services for men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women in Lebanon, he has a first-hand understanding of the health disparities and seemingly insurmountable obstacles that MSM and transgender women refugees face when attempting to access healthcare. Dr. Minawi aims to contribute his expertise in the region in collaboration with medical professionals to address the sexual healthcare needs of displaced LGBTQ+ populations in the Middle East.

Degree

PhD

Title

Associate Professor

Organization

Cornell University

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College/School

[422]

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Department

History

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Area of Expertise (Methods)

[353]

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Area of Expertise (Content)

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Area of interest

Community Engagement and Dissemination, Education

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Center Membership

[377]

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