Amy Aisen

• 2026 Spring
  • HST 407 Iraq: Modern Nation to US Occupation
  • HST 300 Selected Topics - WorldCup: Sports & Arab Soccer

Amy Aisen is a historian of the early modern and modern Middle East and affiliated faculty with Women’s and Gender Studies. Her current research, Tunisia’s Modern Woman: Nation-Building and State Feminism in the Global 1960s (Cambridge University Press, 2021), explores the importance of modern womanhood and women to postcolonial state and society. Considering Cold War alliances, family planning, feminist academics, fashion and love, this book traces state feminism into domestic and international politics, economic development, intellectual conversations, cultural expressions and social shifts during an era of radical political change and women’s rights activism across the Middle East.

Her first book, Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia (University of Texas Press, 2013) is a social history of women and the family that governed Tunisia in the 18th and 19th centuries. Her writing on modern Tunisia has appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Report Online, Arab Media & Society, and Nouri Gana ed.

Aisen teaches courses on the Ottoman Empire and modern Middle East, the Arab Revolutions, popular culture, women and gender in Middle East history, Palestine and Israel, and gender and race in European colonial empires.

• Books
  • Aisen Kallander, A., Tunisia’s Modern Woman: Nation-Building and State Feminism in the Global 1960s. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., Women, Gender, and the Palace Households in Ottoman Tunisia. University of Texas Press, 2013.
• Journal Articles
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Transnational Intimacies and the Construction of the New Nation: Tunisia and France in the 1960s." French Politics, Culture, and Society, 2021.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Miniskirts and 'Beatniks': Gender Roles, National Development, and Morals in 1960s Tunisia." International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2018.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "From TUNeZINE to Nhar 3la 3mmar: A Reconsideration of the Role of Bloggers in Tunisia’s Revolution." In 3 years Since the Spring: A collection of essays on the state of Arab Media, American University in Cairo Press. , 2013.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "From TUNeZINE to Nhar 3la 3mmar: A Reconsideration of the Role of Bloggers in Tunisia’s Revolution." Arab, Media, and Society, 2013.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Tunisia's Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer." In Middle East Report Online. , 2013.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "The Color of Orientalism: Race and Narratives of Discovery in Tunisia." Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2010.
• Book Chapters
  • Said, K., Aisen Kallander, A., "Masculinities and Racial Terms of Belonging in Post-colonial Tunis." In The Palgrave Handbook of African Men and Masculinities. Springer International Publishing, 2024.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle East." In A Companion to Global Gender History. Wiley, 2020.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Consumption at the beylical court of Tunis, 1750-1850." In History from Below: A Tribute in Memory of Donald Quataert. Demir, D. C., Karahasanoglu, S. (eds.) Istanbul Bilgi University Press, 2016.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., ""Friends of Tunisia”: French economic and diplomatic support of Tunisian authoritarianism." In The Tunisian Revolution: Contexts, Architects, Prospects. Gana, N. (ed.) Edinburgh University Press, 2013.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Tunisia’s Post-Ben Ali Challenge: A Primer." In The Arab Revolts: Dispatches on Militant Democracy in the Middle East. McMurray, D., Ufheil-Somers, A. (eds.) Indiana University Press, 2011.
• Book Reviews
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "BENOIT CHALLAND. Violence and Representation in the Arab Uprisings." Review of Middle East Studies, 2023.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World." In Toynbee Prize Foundation Blog . , 2022.
  • Aisen Kallander, A. A., "Decorative Arts of the Tunisian école: Fabrications of Modernism, Gender, and Power." In African Arts. , 2022.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "The Regency of Tunis, 1535–1666: Genesis of an Ottoman Province in the Maghreb. Leïla Temime Blili, translated by Margaux Fitoussi and Anna Boots." International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2022.
  • Kallander, A. A., Rey, V., "Mediating Museums: Exhibiting Material Culture in Tunisia." In Canadian Journal of African Studies/Revue canadienne des études africaines. , 2020.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory, and Gender in Algeria." In Journal of Middle East Women's Studies. , 2019.
  • Aisen Kallander, A., "Political Islam in Tunisia: The History of Ennadha." In Review of Middle East Studies. , 2019.