Faculty and Advising

Faculty assigned to teach Comparative International Studies courses are drawn from the disciplinary departments and area studies centers in the College of Arts and Letters.

Program Director and Undergraduate Adviser

Zamira Abman
History and European Studies
Email: [email protected]
Curriculum vitae
Advising Hours: By Appointment

Zamira Abman is an assistant professor in European Studies and history at San Diego State University, specializing in Eurasia, the Soviet Union, and Russia. Dr. Abman also directs the Comparative International Studies Program.  She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and studies state-centered emancipation of Muslim women in the former Soviet Union/Russia and the Middle East. Her book, Coerced Liberation: Muslim Women in Soviet Tajikistan, is forthcoming in 2023 with the University of Toronto Press. She has also been published in The Palgrave Handbook for Soviet Women’s History. She teaches classes in Soviet/Russian history, Modern Middle East and Gender, Muslims in Europe, Women in Muslim Societies, World History for Teachers, Capstone courses for seniors, World History, and Western Civilization. She is the Director of the Comparative International Studies major in the College of Arts and Letters at SDSU. Prior to her doctorate studies, Dr. Abman completed her undergraduate degree in American Studies and International and Comparative Politics at the American University of Central Asia (an English-language liberal arts college in Kyrgyzstan) and a Master’s degree in International Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution at the University of Notre Dame, the Kroc Institute. She has also worked for various U.S. and African NGOs, including the Carter Center and Counterpart International in Washington, D.C.

Curriculum Committee