Research Interests

Muslim Networks, Empire, Afghanistan, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran

Courses Taught

• Modern Afghanistan
• Modern Russia, Iran, and Afghanistan
• Modern Iran
• The Caucasus and the Muslim World
• Violence, Islam, and the State in Central Asia
• Modern Muslim Movements
• The Russian Empire

Selected Publications

Books

For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia (Harvard University Press, 2006)

The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, co-edited with Amin Tarzi (Harvard University Press, 2008)

Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands, co-edited with Shahzad Bashir (Harvard University Press, 2012)

 
Articles and Book Chapters

• “Trafficking in Evil? The Global Arms Trade and the Politics of Disorder,” Global Islam in the Age of Steam and Print, 1850-1930, eds., James Gelvin and Nile Green (University of California Press, forthcoming).
• “The Taliban and Nationalist Militancy in Afghanistan,” Contextualizing Jihadi Thought, eds., Jeevan Deol and Zaheer Kazmi (London:  Hurst and Co./NY:  Columbia University Press,  2012).
• “Muslim Networks, Imperial Power, and the Local Politics of Qajar Iran,” in Asiatic Russia: Imperial Power in Regional and International Contexts, ed., Uyama Tomohiko (NY:  Routledge, 2012).
• “Russian Conquest and Administration in Inner Asia (1865-1884),” Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Modern Period, eds., Edmund Herzig and Annette Bohr (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). 
•  “Russia Unbound:  Historical Frameworks and the Challenge of Globalism,” Ab Imperio no. 1 (2010):  53-63.
• “Liberating Afghanistan,” Middle East Institute Viewpoints (December 2009), 75-78.
• “An Empire for the Faithful, A Colony for the Dispossessed,” Turkestan russe: une colonie comme les autres? eds., Svetlana Gorshenina and Sergei Abashin (Paris: Collection de l’IFEAC, 2009), 79-106.
• “Rewriting Europe’s Muslim Pasts,” European Studies Forum vol. 38, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 5-11.
• “Moderate Taliban?” The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, 238-273.
• “Epilogue:  Afghanistan and the Pax Americana,” with Atiq Sarwari, The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan, 311-355.
• “Islamic Law, Imperial Order: Muslims, Jews, and the Russian State,” Ab Imperio no. 3 (2004): 467-490.
• “Empire and the Confessional State: Islam and Religious Politics in Nineteenth-Century Russia,” American Historical Review vol. 108, no. 1 (February 2003): 50-83.
• “Civilization in the City: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Colonization of Tashkent,” Architectures of Identity in Russia, 1500-2000, eds., James Cracraft and Daniel Rowland (Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University Press, 2003), 117-132.

Selected Awards and Fellowships

• 2009 Carnegie Scholar
• Dean’s Fellow in the Humanities, Stanford University, 2007-2008
• Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching for First Years of Teaching, Stanford University, 2006-2007
• William H. and Frances Green Faculty Fellow, Stanford University, 2006-2007
• International Research and Exchanges Board Short-Term Research Grant (Azerbaijan and Georgia), Summer 2006
• Library of Congress Fellowship in International Studies, Spring 2003
• Kennan Institute Research Scholar, Fall 2002
• Arbeitskreis Moderne und Islam/Working Group Modernity and Islam Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin/Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin, 1999-2000
• Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Honorific Fellowship in the Humanities, Princeton University, 1998-1999
• Princeton Society of Fellows of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Fellowship, 1998-1999
• Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Doctoral Dissertation Research in Russia and Uzbekistan, 1996-1997