Ph.D., Texas Tech University

Reda Rafei joined the Department of History in the fall of 2023. Dr. Rafei is a specialist in the history of the Middle East with an emphasis on the early modern period. She focuses in her research on the Ottoman Arab provinces in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with a special interest in family, children, and gender and women’s history. She is particularly interested in Islamic law and the Ottoman legal system and how the use of the shari‘a courts shaped women’s life.

Dr. Rafei received her bachelor's degree in history from the Lebanese University in Tripoli Lebanon. She also received an MA in history from Oklahoma State University, a Master's in library sciences from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University.

At Texas Tech, Dr. Rafei will be teaching numerous courses including the undergraduate surveys on World History and upper-level courses including the Modern Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. She is interested in working with undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in learning more about issues related to women and gender in the context of the Middle East from the early modern period to the present.