Lucia Volk
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Associate Professor, Anthropology Department
Contact Information
Office: HSS 129 Phone: (415) 405-2468 Email: lvolk@sfsu.edu |
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Lucia Volk obtained her PhD in Middle Eastern Studies and Anthropology from Harvard University (2001). She also holds an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University (1994). Her dissertation titled "Missing the Nation: Lebanon's Post-Civil War Generation in the Midst of Reconstruction" studied the process of social and cultural reconstruction after Lebanon's 16-year-long civil war from the point of view of Lebanese returnee migrants.
Ongoing research in Lebanon focuses on public memories of violent events. In particular, Prof. Volk studied the role of memorials and martyrs cemeteries to argue that sacrifice of both Muslim and Christian Lebanese are at the core of national imaginings. Her book Memorials and Martyrs in Modern Lebanon appeared in 2010 with Indiana University Press. She has also published on the topic of politics of memory in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, the Arab Studies Journal, the Bulletin d'Archéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises (BAAL) and Middle Eastern Studies. Locally, Prof. Volk has conducted research among recent Muslim immigrants who live in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood in order to investigate issues of health and well-being. She co-authored a report based on data from Health Survey conducted by the Arab Cultural and Community Center in San Francisco titled "Living Healthier Lives in the Diaspora." A copy of the report is available at http://www.arabculturalcenter.org/arabhealth_surveyreport.pdf. Some of her research findings are published in Medical Anthropology Quarterly.
Prof. Volk was co-director of a Department of Education-funded grant to expand the Middle East and Islamic Studies program on campus. She has presented papers at many international conferences, workshops, and colloquia in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Most recently, she lectured at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC Berkeley, the University of Chicago, and the Middle East Centre at St. Antony's College, Oxford University, UK.
