International Relations Undergraduate Program Leadership and Staff

Professor Khalil is a historian of U.S. foreign relations and the modern Middle East. He is the author of "America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State" (Harvard, 2016) and the editor of "United States Relations with China and Iran: Toward the Asian Century" (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Professor Khali previously served as the interim director of the Middle East Studies program. He teaches courses on the history of U.S. foreign relations, the Cold War, the history of international relations, America and the Middle East, and the Vietnam War and popular culture. In 2018, he received the Chancellor’s Citation for Faculty Excellence and Scholarly Distinction. 

Mohammad Ebad Athar is currently  a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at Syracuse University. He is also a graduate research associate in the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs South Asia Center in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Athar's research explores the securitization of South Asian identity during the ongoing Global War on Terror for communities in the United States and the Persian Gulf. Mohammad previously completed an M.A. in history at Syracuse and earned a B.A. in history from Rutgers University. Athar has also served as a Graduate Fellow at Syracuse's Lender Center for Social Justice.  

An oral historian by training with experience in the public history field, Athar seeks to connect students to career fields and experiences beyond traditional academic spaces and career trajectories while also encouraging students to think about the communities they can serve in their future work.  

Ahlam Islam completed her undergraduate study at Maxwell, studying sociology and citizenship and civic engagement. As an undergraduate, she engaged in research exploring the mental health utilization of college students of color and designed and implemented intersectional workshops and initiatives at both the Shaw Center and the Barnes Center at the Arch.

Following her undergraduate studies, she remained at Syracuse University and worked with the McNair Scholars Program whilst simultaneously completing an M.S. in cultural foundations of education. 

She strives to connect students with experiences that will broaden their academic curiosity and increase their access to opportunities and spaces that will enhance their abilities to promote equity and tangible change.