Dr. Amal Cavender comes to GW from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), where she taught a number of courses at the Herron School of Art and Design, including Arabic Languages and Cultures, the History of the Islamic World, and Urbanism and Building Cities in the Islamic World. Amal has a master’s degree in architecture and planning from Ball State University, where she completed her thesis Maloula: Endurance of a Village in Syria, and a PhD in history from Purdue University, where she completed her dissertation Sultans, Merchants, and Changes in Morocco (1830-1912). Amal has worked in the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul; conducted field and archival research in Turkey, Syria, Morocco and France; and is fluent or has advanced proficiency in Modern Arabic, Modern Turkish and Ottoman, French and Spanish.