Nadia Oweidat

Dr. Nadia Oweidat is an associate professor in the History Department and the Security Studies Program. Born and raised in Jordan, Dr. Oweidat holds a D.Phil. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford, an M.A. in international studies from the University of Wyoming, and a B.A. in English literature from the University of Jordan. She was one of 21 international scholars who were granted a Wilson Center Fellowship during the 2021/2022 academic year. An intellectual historian by training, Dr. Oweidat researches and teaches classes on Islam and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in the History Department and the Security Studies Program. Dr. Oweidat was a senior nonresident fellow at New America. She also served in senior roles in the U.S. government from 2023 to 2025, mainly in the Department of State. She serves on the board of trustees of the Hindawi Foundation, a charity that makes thousands of books available online at no cost in Arabic and other languages.

Dr. Oweidat’s first book, Reform and Its Perils in Contemporary Islam: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. She is currently working on a second book, an intellectual history of the Middle East with an emphasis on the impact of soft power.