Kurt Werthmuller

Kurt Werthmuller is an Adjunct Fellow at Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom.

At Hudson Institute, Kurt Werthmuller is researching trends in the status of religious minorities in the Middle East, especially in the Arab world.  Currently, he is examining the real and potential impact of regional uprisings on these communities.

Before joining Hudson, Werthmuller served as Associate Professor of History at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA from 2007-2011, and as Assistant Professor of History at Geneva College from 2005-2007.  During this time, he published Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt, 1218-1250 (American University in Cairo Press, 2010), wrote articles for the World History Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO 2011) and the Dictionary of African Biography (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2011), presented on non-Muslims in medieval Egypt at the Middle East Studies Association and American Historical Association, and given public lectures on the Coptic community and on the recent Egyptian revolution.

Werthmuller received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on the non-Muslim communities of Egypt under medieval Islamic rule, while also studying the modern political and intellectual history of the Arab world, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Late Antiquity.  He conducted dissertation research in Cairo as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow (2004-2005).  He received his A.M. in Middle Eastern Studies from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University in 2002, where he studied Arabic, modern and medieval Middle Eastern history, Arabic literature, and classical Islamic philosophy.  He earned his B.A. in history from Messiah College in 1995.

Books:

Coptic Identity and Ayyubid Politics in Egypt, 1218-1250. (American University in Cairo Press, 2010)

Articles:

-  Biographical entries for the Dictionary of African Biography (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2011): al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Badr al-Jamali, al-Malik al-Kamil, Naguib Mahfouz, Muhammad Naguib, Saladin, Ahmad 'Urabi.

-  "The Copts in Egypt, 300-1000 CE." and "The Copts in Egypt, 1000-1500 CE." World History Encyclopedia. (ABC-CLIO 2011)

 -  "The Extraordinary Ordinariness of Ibn Khaldun: The Great Medieval Islamic Historian in Context." Historically Speaking, VIII (3), January / February 2007, 22-24. 

Lectures and Presentations:

-  "Why Egypt Overthrew Mubarak." (March 2011) Panel brief and discussion as part of The New Middle East: Recent Uprisings and their Impact on the Region, sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University.

-  "Beyond Dhimmitude: Finding Coptic Identity, Past and Present." (November 2010)  Lecture at the invitation of the Claremont Graduate University School of Religion History of Christianity Program and the Council for Coptic Studies.

-  "The Copts of Egypt: Tradition and Renewal." (April 2008) Invited to present as part of the proceedings of "Minorities in the Middle East: A Symposium," Florida State University.

-  "Ayyubid Society and Coptic Identity through the Pen of a Medieval Coptic Patriarch, 1235-1243." (November 2006) Paper presented at the Middle East Studies Association of North America Annual Meeting; also organized MESA conference panel, "Copts and Muslims in Pre-Modern Egyptian Society."