Administrative Staff
Jayne Zarecky
Administrative Coordinator
GLA 257, ext. 3500
history@brocku.ca
jzarecky@brocku.ca
Lisa Betts
Interim Graduate Programs Assistant
GLA 202, ext. 3884
mahistory@brocku.ca
lbetts@brocku.ca
Melissa Vanatte
Graduate Programs Assistant (on leave)
GLA 202, ext. 3884
mahistory@brocku.ca
mvanatte@brocku.ca
Library Staff
John Dingle
Librarian
jdingle@brocku.ca.
1131 Schmon Tower
905-688-5550 ext. 3809
David Sharron
Archivist
dsharron@brocku.ca
Archives & Special Collections
905-688-5550 ext. 3264
Postdoctoral Fellows and Visiting Scholars
Alana Café
alanabmcafe@gmail.com
Visiting International Scholar (September 2023)
Working with Dr. Mark Spencer
Alana Café is a PhD student in Philosophy at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil (FAPEMIG full scholarship), working under the supervision of Professor Lívia Guimarães. Her dissertation explores the character portraits in David Hume’s History of England. From August, 2023 through January, 2024, she will collaborate with Brock University’s History Department as a Visiting International Scholar (VIS), where her key academic contact is Professor Mark Spencer. Her research interests center on early modern philosophy and historiography, and the relationship between history and philosophy. Alana also works as co-editor of the journal Revista estudos hum(e)anos.
Reza Tabandeh, PhD
rtabandeh@brocku.ca
Postdoctoral Fellow
Reza Tabandeh is currently a Postdoctoral researcher on Islam and Sufism at Brock University. He received his BA from York University on Religious Studies. He completed his MA on the great Sufi poet of 13th century, Rumi, at the University of Toronto. He earned his PhD in Islamic Studies from the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter. His doctoral work examined the revival of Ni‘matullāhī Sufism in Persia, with a focus on the second generation of Ni‘matullāhī masters, during the period following the return of the order to Persia from India (1776 C.E). His Postdoctoral research at the University of Toronto investigated the love of “People of the house” (means the household of the Prophet) and its philosophy and beliefs practiced by Sufis master during 12th to 15th century. Dr. Tabaneh was invited as a guest lecturer on contemporary Shi‘ite Sufism in Irān, with special attention toward Ni‘matullāhī Sufism and persecution of Sufis in Persia, at Brock University, the University of Toronto, and York University. He was also a visiting lecturer in University of Bradford, UK, on issues related to cultural influences of the Islamic states (Iran, Lebanon and Palestine). He co-convened an international conference, “Sufis and Mullahs: Sufis and their Opponents in the Persianate World” with Dr. Leonard Lewisohn, and edited the conference proceedings as a book (“Sufis and Their Opponents in the Persianate World,” Irvine, CA: UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies, 2020). He has published scholarly articles and book chapters on the philosophy and beliefs practiced by Sufi masters from the 12th to 15th centuries. His recent book is entitled, “The Rise of the Ni‘matullāhī Order: Shi’ite Sufi Masters Against Islamic Fundamentalism in 19th-Century Persia,” June 2021, DOI:10.24415/9789087283674.
Eric Story, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow (January 2024)
Working with Dr. Maureen Lux