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Dr. Victoria Hightower earned her Ph.D. in 2011 from Florida State University. Her research focuses on the pearl trade, history and heritage in the United Arab Emirates 1800-present. She teaches courses on world history, Middle East history, gender studies, and environmental history.

• Ph.D, History, Florida State University, 2011
• M.A., Near Eastern Studies, University of Arizona, 2006
• M.A., History, Florida State University, 2004
• B.A., History, Florida State University, 2001

Articles and Book Chapters:

Worrall, James and Victoria Penziner Hightower. “Methods in the Madness? Exploring the Logics of Torture in Syrian Counterinsurgency Practices” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Special Issue on Mass Violence in Syria, 16 April 2021. Peer reviewed.

The Tyranny of the Pearl: Desire, Oppression, and Nostalgia in the Lower Gulf” in All Things Arabia: Arabian Identity and Material Culture, edited by Ileana Baird and Hulya Yagcioglu. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2020. Peer reviewed.

Hightower, Victoria Penziner. “Heritage Industries and the UAE’s and Qatar’s Quest for Regional Cultural Legitimacy.” In Gulfization of the Arab World, edited by Marc Owen Jones, Ross Porter, and Marc Valeri, 27-40. Berlin and London: Gerlach Press, 2018. Peer reviewed.

Hightower, Victoria Penziner. “Purposeful Ambiguity: The Pearl Trade and Heritage Construction in the United Arab Emirates” in Cultural Heritage in the Arabian Peninsula, eds. Karen Exell and Trinidad Rico. London: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2013. Peer reviewed.

Hightower, Victoria Penziner. “Pearling and Political Power in the Trucial States, 1850-1950: Debt, Taxes, and Politics” Journal of Arabian Studies, 3, no. 2 (December 2013). Peer reviewed.

Hightower, Victoria Penziner. “Pearls and the Southern Persian/Arabian Gulf: A Lesson in Sustainability.” Environmental History, 18, no. 1 (2013): 1-16. Peer reviewed.

Hightower, Victoria Penziner ‘We were never weak in the old days’: Gender and Pearling in the Southern Gulf Emirates, 1870-1950,” Liwa: Journal of the National Center for Documentation & Research, 4, no. 8, (2012): 5-17. Peer reviewed.

Co-Edited Volumes

Representing the Nation—heritage, museums, national narratives and identity in the Arab Gulf States, Pamela Erskine-Loftus, Victoria Penziner Hightower, and Mariam Ibrahim Al-Mulla eds. London: Routledge, 2016. Peer reviewed.

Byers, Richard and Victoria Penziner Hightower (eds.). Transitions and Transformations in World History, Dahlonega, GA: University Press of North Georgia, 2013. (second ed. 2018) Peer reviewed.

• Committee on Undergraduate Middle East Studies, 2020-present
• Middle East Studies Association, 2006-present
• Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies, 2011-present
• Phi Alpha Theta, 2012-present.