An anthropologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Anne Betteridge is Director of the UA Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a faculty member in the UA School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Her research interests focus on Iranian culture, and women and ritual in particular. She conducted fieldwork and lived in Iran from late 1974 until early 1979, and has made three visits to Iran since that time. At the UA, Anne teaches courses related to ethnography of the Middle East, the study of Middle Eastern women and Iranian culture and society. She is currently co-chair of the Council of Directors of Title VI of National Resource Centers; a member of the Academic Steering Committee of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University; and, she is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Persianate Studies. She served as executive director of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) from 1990-2002.