Steven Caton Named Khalid bin Abdullah Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies
Islamic Studies Today 2012
Steven Caton Named Khalid bin Abdullah Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies
Steven Caton, who has taught at Harvard since 1998, was named Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Alsaud Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies in Harvard’s Department of Anthropology in 2012. Professor Caton is a scholar of Arabic and the Middle East, with an emphasis on Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula. During his tenure at Harvard, he has served as chair of the Department of Anthropology and director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and conducted extensive research on topics ranging from the water crisis in Yemen, environmentalism, and political ecology to film and visual images. Professor Caton has encouraged social science research on contemporary Islam by working with Jocelyn Cesari on a survey of Muslims in the Boston area and directing the joint Ph.D. program in anthropology and Middle Eastern studies that has produced about ten doctorates focused on contemporary Islam, particularly in Europe and the United States. Professor Caton’s publications include Peaks of Yemen I Summon (1990), Lawrence of Arabia: A Film’s Anthropology (1999), Yemen Chronicle (2005), and Anthropology, Film Industries, Modularity, co-edited with Ramyar Rossoukh (2021).
