Faculty Profile Form: Maria F. Curtis
Biography
Maria Curtis has taught undergraduate Anthropology and MA Cross Cultural Studies at
the University of Houston-Clear Lake since 2007. She has conducted research in several
cities in Morocco, Turkey, and among American Muslims in the U.S., and has written
about the ways in which American Muslim immigrant women counter Islamophobia
through acts of generosity, renewed piety, and religious beliefs that come to life through
ritual, clothing, music, new media, and public events. Her current work focuses on
diversity within the greater American Muslim community, and the ways that they
challenge post 9/11 stereotypes and create multi faith spaces of public dialogue.
Education
PhD Anthropology and Cultural Studies, The University of Texas at Austin. Dissertation
title: “Sound Faith: Nostalgia, Global Spirituality, and the Making of the Fes Festival of
World Sacred Music”.
Doctoral Portfolio in Cultural Studies (Supplemental coursework in the Humanities,
Media, and Performance Studies), The University of Texas at Austin.
MA Anthropology. MA: “ ‘Ayoua and Women’s Venerative Traditions in Northern
Morocco”. The University of Texas at Austin.
BA Modern Romance Languages, Contemporary French Literature and French to
English Translation. Advanced, and Research Honors in Cultural Anthropology. Cum
Laude. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
Additional Study
Languages: French, Moroccan Arabic, Classical Arabic, Turkish
• Tested by ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Oral
Proficiency Interview in Modern Standard Arabic with an Intermediate Mid. Rating.
• American Language Institute of Fes, Private instruction in Classical, and Moroccan
Dialectical Arabic. Fes, Morocco.
• Bogaziçi University Turkish summer program, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Independent language and field research in Morocco. Fulbright Moroccan American
Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange.
• Georgetown University and the American Institute for Maghreb Studies Arabic
Program, Tangier, Morocco.
• American Language Institute of Fes 120 hour program in Moroccan dialect. Fes,
Morocco.
• University of Grenoble, C.U.E.F. French Language Program. Grenoble, France.
Certificat Pratique de la Langue Française, Premier Degré.
Teaching Areas
1. Islam in Africa
2. Turkey and Central Asia
3. Theories of Cultural Diversity
4. Women and Gender in the Middle East
5. Media, Gender and Diplomacy in the Arab World
6. Model Arab League Faculty Sponsor
Areas of Research, Scholarly, or Creative Activities:
1. Diasporic Muslim communities and expressions of Islamic cosmopolitanism
2. Discrimination, alterity, affect, intersectionality, situated identities
3. Cultural diversity, ethnoscapes, discourses of multiculturalism
4. Women and gender in Islam, interfaith dialogue and civic engagement, social
movements in the Muslim world
5. Public and material culture
Selected Publications or Creative Works
List up to five of any combination of the most recent, most relevant, or most important.
1. On Fasting in Fes: Learning about Food, Family, and Friendship during Fieldwork in
Morocco. In Studying Islam in Practice. Gabriele Marranci, ed. Routledge.
2. “I Have a Voice”: Despatialization, Multiple Alterities, and the Digital Performance of
Jabala Women of Northern Morocco. In Muslim Women’s Digital Geographies. Anna
Piela, ed. Berg.
3. Anatolian ‘Sister Mothers’: Turkish American Muslim Mothers’ and Grandmothers’
Networks in Diaspora. In Muslim Mothering: Local and Global Histories, Theories,
and Practices. Dana Olwan, ed. Demeter Press.
4. Closet Tales from a Turkish Cultural Center in the Petro Metro: Muslim Fashion and
Clothing Biographies of Women in Houston, Texas. In Muslim Fashion and AntiFashion: New Perspectives from Europe and America. Annelies Moors and Emma
Tarlo, eds. Pp. 182-198. Bloomsbury.
5. 2013 Fiqh, The Science of Islamic Jurisprudence. In The Bloomsbury Companion
to Islamic Studies. Clinton Bennett, ed. Pp. 207-226. London and New York:
Bloomsbury.
Professional Affiliations
American Anthropological Association
American Academy of Religion
American Association of University Women
Association for Middle East Women’s Studies
Course Links
1)
https://www.facebook.com/UHCLanthropology/posts/170166063135486?ref=
notif&notif_t=like#!/UHCLanthropology
2)
https://www.facebook.com/UHCLanthropology/posts/170166063135486?ref=
notif&notif_t=like#!/UHCLmal
3.https://www.facebook.com/UHCLanthropology/posts/170166063135486?ref=notif&no
tif_t=like#!/groups/183483560911/?fref=ts
3)
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/search/?t=article&d1=1+year+ago&q=Mod
el+Arab+League
4)
http://newsroom.uhcl.edu/pr/uhcl/uhcl-model-arab-league-delegation244169.aspx
5. http://youtu.be/U5ynmbEvhwg
6. http://www.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/HSH/HOME/HSH%20Programs/Anthropology
7.
http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/HSH/HOME/HSH%20Programs/Anthropology/Fac
ulty
8.
http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/HSH/HOME/HSH%20Programs/Anthropology/Co
ntent/files/Anthropology%20Crossings.pdf
9.
http://www.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/HSH/HOME/HSH%20Programs/Cross%20Cultur
al%20Studies
10. http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/portal/HSH/HOME/PROGRAMS/WS