Heather Ferguson
Director
Heather Ferguson received an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas, Austin and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. After a two-year postdoctoral position at Stanford University, she joined the CMC faculty at in 2011 and is now an Associate Professor of Ottoman and Middle Eastern History. Heather is an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow, 2014-2015, for her book project entitled The Proper Order of Things: Language, Power and Law in Ottoman Administrative Discourses (Stanford 2018). Her second book project, supported by an NEH summer stipend and an ACLS Burkhardt Fellowship, is titled Sovereign Valedictions: “Last Acts” and Archival Ventures in Ottoman and Habsburg Courts. Her research focuses broadly on comparative early modern empires, formation of groups and categories of difference and violence, linkages between archives and hegemonic constructions of power, as well as on legal and urban transformations around the Mediterranean. She also serves as Co-Editor (with Lara Deeb, Scripps College) of the International Journal of Middle East History.
Kirsti Zitar ’97 P’26
Assistant Director
Kirsti graduated from CMC in 1997 with a dual degree in Human Biology and Anthropology. Following graduation, Kirsti worked in the biotech industry in Seattle before returning to Claremont in 2000 to join the inaugural class at Keck Graduate Institute. She finished her MBS degree in 2002 and joined a local start-up biotech company where she worked in business development, marketing, product development, and human relations. In 2009, Kirsti returned to her alma mater to work with the Berger Institute for Individual and Social Development before transitioning to her current role with the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights in 2011.