Reşat Kasaba

Reşat Kasaba is an expert in the history and politics of the Middle East and has taught undergraduate and graduate students at the School for over 30 years. He is a recipient of a UW Distinguished Teaching Award. His courses cover a wide range of topics including economic history, state-society relations, migration, ethnicity and nationalism, urban history in the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy and world history.

He is also Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Washington.

Kasaba served as the director of the Jackson School for 10 years, completing his tenure in June 2020. He is currently researching history of U.S. foreign policy in Turkey, and the political consequences of rural-urban divide in modern Turkey.

Kasaba is regularly featured in local and regional media for insights into some of the world’s most pressing issues. He also shares his expertise at the UW, and at other universities and non-profit groups around the world.

He also served as President of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) (2017-2019) and as a board member of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (2015-2018). He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Kasaba has written and edited seven books and over 40 articles and opinion pieces.