Randi Deguilhem is professor (directrice de recherche habilitée) with the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) at IREMAM (Institute for Research and Study on the Arab and Muslim Worlds), Aix-en-Provence, France. She has a PhD from New York University, USA, and a habilitation from the University of Provence, France.

A historian of the modern and contemporary Arab and Muslim world, she specializes on 19^th–21^st century Syria. Her research interests include the law and practices of waqf as based on fiqh and the Ottoman tribunal records, part of which focuses on women, as well as on the subject of Ottoman state educational infrastructures (such as Maktab ‘Anbar) and secularizing trends in late Ottoman Syria and during the Mandate period (such as the Mission Laïque Française). She has lived for several years in Syria first as a Fulbright-Hays doctoral research recipient and then as a research fellow of IFPO (Institut Français du Proche-Orient), working in the historical archives in Damascus. She also carries out archival research on Ottoman period documents located in Tripoli (Libya) and in Istanbul.

She has published and co-edited 10 books as well as over 50 articles in international journals, over 10 book reviews and she has produced a documentary film on Syrian women. Among her recent publications: "Exporting Secularism�: The French Secular Mission in Mandatory Syria", in Pierre-Jean Luizard, ed., Le choc colonial et l’islam, Paris, La Découverte, 2006, pp. 383-99; "Women, Gender and Waqf: Ottoman", EWIC, v. 5, Leiden, 2007, p. 384-8; "The waqf in the city", in Salma Jayyusi, dir. The City in the Islamic World, Leiden, 2008, p. 923-50.

In addition to her individual research, since 1998, she has supervised 18 PhD dissertations at the University of Provence, 12 of which have defended their PhDs. Since 1998, she directs Master/doctoral seminars at the University of Provence and from this year (2010-11), she has created a new master/doctoral seminar, "Waqf foundations in the Mediterranean" at IISMM (Institut d’études de l’Islam et des Sociétés du Monde Musulman) - EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), Paris.

She has also created and organized several international research programs among which a program: "Intellectuals and public opinion in the Arab world". From 2006 to 2008, she has co-directed the "Law of Waqf" program at Harvard Islamic Legal Studies Program in the U.S. She is Editor-in-Chief of The Islamic Mediterranean collection at IB Tauris, London (8 volumes have appeared), and Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris (5 volumes have appeared). A historian of the modern and contemporary Arab and Muslim world, she specializes on 19^th–21^st century Syria. Her research interests include the law and practices of waqf as based on fiqh and the Ottoman tribunal records, part of which focuses on women, as well as educational infrastructures and secularizing trends in late Ottoman and Mandatory Syria. She has lived for several years in Syria first as a Fulbright-Hays doctoral research recipient and then as a research fellow of IFPO (Institut Français du Proche-Orient), working in the historical archives in Damascus. She also carries out archival research on Ottoman period documents located in Tripoli (Libya) and in Istanbul. Among her recent publications: "Exporting Secularism�: The French Secular Mission in Mandatory Syria", in Pierre-Jean Luizard, ed., Le choc colonial et l’islam, Paris, La Découverte, 2006, pp. 383-99; "Women, Gender and Waqf: Ottoman", EWIC, v. 5, Leiden, 2007, p. 384-8; "The waqf in the city", in Salma Jayyusi, dir. The City in the Islamic World, Leiden, 2008, p. 923-50.

�Randi Deguilhem

CNRS, IREMAM-MMSH

5 rue château de l’horloge BP 647

13094 Aix-en-Provence, France

[email�protected] ���[email�protected] ���[email�protected]