Rosie Bsheer received an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University in 2006, after which she joined the History Department’s Ph.D. program. Her M.A. thesis, entitled “Teaching the Nation: Citizens and the State in Saudi Arabian History Textbooks” sparked her interests in the study of historiography, archive theories, and material culture. As a doctoral candidate, Rosie studies modern Middle East history and focuses on spatial transformations in Saudi Arabia in relation to a project of history making and political legitimacy. Rosie is currently wrapping up her two-year field research in Riyadh for her dissertation, provisionally titled “Making History: Petro-capitalism and Spatial Transformation in Saudi Arabia,” which focuses on the ways in which the political economy of oil came to structure the production of Saudi Arabian history, built environment, and concepts of nationhood.

In addition to her academic career, Rosie was involved in the production of several documentary films. She is Associate Producer of the 2007 Oscar-nominated film “My Country, My Country,” an intimate portrait of Iraqis living under US occupation and the tragic narrative of how this occupation unfolds. In 2006, Rosie co-produced and co-directed “Notes on the War,” a video essay shot in Lebanon that chronicles the story of a diverse group of displaced families whose lives were irrevocably changed as a result of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.