Erica Augenstein is a first year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of Houston. She studies under the direction of Professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti. Her research centers on the Palestinian left in the 1950s and 1960s—particularly Palestinian activists in the Communist Party of Israel. Erica is committed to CAS as a base for multidisciplinary scholarship of the Arab world that engages with Houston’s Arab American community.

She received her B.A. in Government and Economics from Cornell University and her M.A. in Middle East Studies from The University of Chicago. At the university, she served as the Treasurer for the Middle Eastern Studies Students Association. Erica’s M.A. thesis was titled “A Legacy of Navigation: Jabra Nicola and the Left in Palestine / Israel” and supervised by Professor Orit Bashkin. 

Email: ezaugens@cougarnet.uh.edu