My research focuses on book culture and the history of libraries in the Middle East from the eighteen century to the present. My previous research has concentrated primarily on Arabic manuscripts and library catalogues in the late Ottoman Empire and the early post-Ottoman period. My latest research has been focusing on an understudied group of Arab Christian bibliophiles and manuscript collectors in the early 20th century, recovering an understanding of how approaches towards books, manuscripts, and libraries developed in the shadow of contemporary concerns about sectarianism and the destruction of the literary heritage of the Middle East. Overall, my approach has been to assess how the material elements of texts informed cultural production in the region across different communities: Ottoman and Arab, Christian and Muslim, in urban centres and in the provinces.
