2011-2012 Visiting Scholars

Shahla Haeri

Shahla Haeri has conducted research in Iran, Pakistan, and India, and has written extensively on religion, law, and gender dynamics in the Muslim world. She is the author of No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women (Syracuse University Press in the United States, and Oxford University Press in Pakistan, 2004), and Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage, Mut’a, in Iran (1989, 1993). She was involved in the University of Chicago’s multi-year program on global fundamentalism, Fundamentalism Project, which was funded by a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur grant, and contributed an article to the second volume, “Obedience versus Autonomy: Women & Fundamentalism in Iran & Pakistan” (1993).

Lawrence Potter

Lawrence Potter has taught at Columbia University since 1996 and has served as adjunct associate professor of International Affairs since 2002. He has also served as deputy director of the SIPA’s Gulf/2000 Project since 1994.Potter has edited The Persian Gulf in History (2009), and co-edited (with Gary Sick) The Persian Gulf at the Millennium: Essays in Politics, Economy, Security, and Religion (1997); Security in the Persian Gulf: Origins, Obstacles, and the Search for Consensus (2002); and Iran, Iraq and the Legacies of War (2004). He has published a number of articles and a monograph, “The Persian Gulf: Tradition and Transformation” (2011) in the Foreign Policy Association’s Headline Series.Potter previously taught at Bryn Mawr College (1997-98); the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1993-95); and Tufts University (1993-94). Potter holds a BA from Tufts University (1970), an MA from the University of London (1971), and an MPhil and PhD from Columbia University (1981 and 1992).