Heather J. Sharkey (born 1967) is an American
historian of the
Middle East and Africa, and of the modern Christian and Islamic worlds. Her books and articles have covered topics relating to nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonial studies, missionary movements, religious communities, and language politics, especially in
Egypt and
Sudan. She is currently Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the
University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
Career
Heather J. Sharkey was born and raised in
New Jersey. She graduated from
Peddie School
The Peddie School is a college preparatory school in Hightstown, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is a non-denominational, coeducational boarding school located on a campus, and serves students in the ninth through twelfth gr ...
, and then won a scholarship from the
English-Speaking Union
The English-Speaking Union (ESU) is an international educational membership organistation. Founded by the journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918, it aims to bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures, by building skill ...
to attend
Culford School
Culford School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for pupils age 1-18 in the village of Culford, miles north of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. The headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' ...
in
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton ...
, England, for one year. As an undergraduate, she attended
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
, where she received a bachelor's degree in Anthropology, ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' and became a member of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...
. She won a
Marshall Scholarship from the British government and attended
Durham University, where she earned an
MPhil
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...
degree in Modern Middle East Studies. She pursued her PhD in History at
Princeton University, where she specialized in the study of modern Africa and modern
Islamic thought. Her dissertation, supervised by Robert L. Tignor, received Honorable Mention for the
Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award in the humanities from the
Middle East Studies Association
Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encoura ...
(MESA).
Before joining the faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania in 2002, Sharkey taught at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...
(1997–98); the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (1998-2000); and
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in Hartford, Connecticut (2000-2). She was a visiting professor (Professeur Invité) at the Institut d’études de l’Islam et des sociétés du monde musulman (IISMM) of the
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in
Paris (2012–13).
Scholarship
Sharkey's first book, ''Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan'', appeared from the
University of California Press in 2003, and received Honorable Mention for the
Albert Hourani Book Award of the
Middle East Studies Association
Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encoura ...
(MESA). This book examines how nationalism emerged among a generation of Sudanese Muslim thinkers who worked by day for the British colonial regime, holding mundane jobs, and who gathered by night to compose Arabic poetry and to write essays that enabled them to imagine the Sudan as a land and nation. The book shows how everyday experiences of colonial rule gave rise to cultures of nationalism.
Sharkey's second book, ''American Evangelicals in Egypt: Missionary Encounters in an Age of Empire'', appeared from
Princeton University Press in 2008. This book studies the history of the American Presbyterian missionaries who, from 1854 to 1967, operated the
largest Protestant mission in Egypt, while operating schools, hospitals, and other institutions that appealed to Egyptians Christians and Muslims alike. Sharkey shows how these American missionaries influenced Egyptian society in far-reaching ways, even in the absence of conversions, and how experiences in Egypt reciprocally influenced the missionaries and the church that sent them, with consequences for American Protestant culture and U.S.-Egyptian relations more broadly.
Cambridge University Press published Sharkey's third book, ''A History of Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East'', in 2017. Written for Cambridge's Contemporary Middle East series, this book appeals to an audience of general educated readers as well as Middle East history specialists. This book shows how Islamic states – and especially the modern
Ottoman state – managed religious diversity while devising specific policies towards Muslims, Christians, Jews and members of other religious groups. Sharkey closely studies Ottoman policies towards non-Muslims as
''dhimmi''s – protected people subordinate to Muslims in Islamic societies. She considers how these policies evolved or persisted amid social changes and reforms of the nineteenth century, some of which ostensibly tried to promote religious equality while advancing ideas about citizenship. Ultimately, she considers how religion “worked” as a framework for government and society, and how it shaped social attitudes and expectations in the years leading up to World War I – with consequences for the Middle East in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Sharkey has also published three volumes of essays. The first, co-edited with Mehmet Ali Doğan of
Istanbul Technical University, is A''merican Missionaries in the Modern Middle East: Foundational Encounters''. This book appeared from the
University of Utah Press
The University of Utah Press is the independent publishing branch of the University of Utah and is a division of the J. Willard Marriott Library. Founded in 1949 by A. Ray Olpin, it is also the oldest university press in Utah. The mission of th ...
in 2011. The second, ''Cultural Conversions: Unexpected Consequences of Christian Missionary Encounters in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia'', appeared from
Syracuse University Press in 2013. Building on this work, Sharkey has written many articles on the history of Christian missions and world Christianity. With Jeffrey Edward Green, she published ''The Changing Terrain of Religious Freedom'', which appeared from the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2021.
With Elena Vezzadini (
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
, Institut des mondes africaines
MAF
MAF may refer to:
Military
* Myanmar Air Force
* Malaysian Armed Forces
* Marine Amphibious Force, a former name for Marine Expeditionary Force, a type of U.S. Marine Corps task force
Organizations
* Majid Al Futtaim Group
* Move America Forw ...
Paris) and Iris Seri-Hersch (
Université d’Aix-Marseille
Aix-Marseille University (AMU; french: Aix-Marseille Université; formally incorporated as ''Université d'Aix-Marseille'') is a public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II of ...
), she edited in 2015 a special issue of the ''
Canadian Journal of African Studies'', on the theme of “Rethinking Sudan Studies” after the 2011 secession of
South Sudan. Her own article in this collection traces the life and “afterlives” of a giraffe who went from Sudan to France in 1826 (and whose skeleton still stands on display in the
Muséum d'Histoire naturelle de La Rochelle). This article contributes to the study of Franco-Sudanese relations and environmental history in the
Nile Valley
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
.
Awards and Distinctions
Upon graduating from
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
, Sharkey became a
Marshall Scholar to the United Kingdom, where she attended
Durham University and earned an MPhil degree in Modern Middle Eastern Studies. She studied
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
at the
American University in Cairo
The American University in Cairo (AUC; ar, الجامعة الأمريكية بالقاهرة, Al-Jāmi‘a al-’Amrīkiyya bi-l-Qāhira) is a private research university in Cairo, Egypt. The university offers American-style learning programs ...
, first, when she was an undergraduate at Yale, in the summer program of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) and years later, when she was an assistant professor at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, in the CASA III summer program for faculty members. She has received research grants from the
American-Scandinavian Foundation, the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
, and other organizations. She is a past recipient of a
Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities,
Josephine De Kármán Fellowship, and
Carnegie Scholars Fellowship.
She won the Charles Ludwig Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania in 2011.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharkey, Heather J.
1967 births
Living people
21st-century American historians
Marshall Scholars
Princeton University alumni
University of Pennsylvania faculty
Yale University alumni
Peddie School alumni
People educated at Culford School
Historians from New Jersey
Durham University Graduate Society alumni
Fulbright alumni