Laure Salma Assaf

Laure Assaf is an anthropologist and a specialist of Middle Eastern studies. Her research interests focus on youth, urbanity, and migration in contemporary Emirati society and the broader Gulf region.

She was trained in anthropology at Paris Nanterre University and in Arabic at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. She is currently working on a book manuscript derived from her PhD thesis, entitled Arab youths of Abu Dhabi: Status categories, urban sociability and the shaping of subjectivities in the United Arab Emirates (2017).

She is also an Associate Researcher at the French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences (CEFAS) in Kuwait.

Research Areas: Arabian Peninsula; United Arab Emirates, Youth, Migration, Hierarchies, Social change, Anthropology

Education

• PhD in Anthropology Paris Nanterre University 2017
• Masters of Anthropology Paris Nanterre University 2009
• Bachelor of Arabic (Modern Standard) National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), Paris 2014
• Bachelor of Anthropology Paris Nanterre University 2006

Courses Taught

• ACS-UH 1010X Anthropology and the Arab World
• ACS-UH 2613X Youth in the Middle East
• ACS-UH 4001 Arab Crossroads Studies Senior Capstone Project
• SRPP-UH 2416X Gulf Urban Societies
• SRPP-UH 4000 Capstone Seminar
• SRPP-UH 4001 Capstone Project