Associate Professor, Department of History and Program for International and Comparative Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
May 2018-Present
Curriculum Vitae
Melanie Schulze Tanielian
Academic appointments, publications, grants, invited talks, service, and graduate advising.
Academic Positions
Director, Program for International and Comparative Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
June 2023-Present
Director, Center for Armenian Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Aug. 2019-June 2022
Assistant Professor, Department of History and Program for International and Comparative Studies
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Aug. 2012-May 2018
Adjunct Faculty, Department of History
University of San Francisco, California
Spring 2011
Education
Ph.D., History
University of California, Berkeley
Dissertation: The War of Famine: Everyday Life in Wartime Beirut and Mount Lebanon (1914-1918). Winner, 2012 Best Dissertation, Syrian Studies Association.
December 2012
M.A., History
University of California, Berkeley
Spring 2007
B.A., Middle Eastern Studies
University of California, Berkeley. High Honors. Thesis: Christian Minorities in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Aleppo.
Spring 2004
B.A., Religious Studies
University of California, Berkeley. High Honors.
Spring 2004
Publications
Monographs
- The Charity of War: Famine, Humanitarian Aid, and World War I in the Middle East, Stanford University Press, 2018.
- Scandals and Salvation: German Humanitarianism in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1896-1933, Cambridge University Press, Human Rights in History Series, under contract.
Edited Volumes
- Survivor Archives of the Armenian Genocide: Remnants, Affects, and Embodiments, with Erdag Goknar and Hulya Adak, Edinburgh University Press, 2026.
- In the Spirit of H. Chandler Davis: Activism and the Struggle for Academic Freedom, with Michael Atzmon, Gary Krenz, and John Cheney-Lippold, Michigan Publishing, 2025.
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
- "Inhabiting the Blockade: Civilian Precarity and the Spatial Logic of Naval War," under contract for the Oxford University Press Handbook of War and the Sea.
- "Managing the Undesirables: Humanitarian Encampment in Post-WWI Aleppo," in Concentration Camps during the Armenian Genocide: Road to the Death.
- "Impossible Conditions of Life: Famine, Humanitarian Management and Genocide in Gaza," Humanity 16, no. 1-2 (2025): 85-115.
- "We Found Her by the River: Protestant Practices of Child 'Rescue' and Sponsorship and the Shaping of Humanitarian Commercialism in the Early Twentieth Century," The American Historical Review 129, no. 3 (2024): 889-918.
- "The Silent Slow Killer of Famine: Humanitarian Management and Permanent Security," Journal for Genocide Research (2024).
- "Defying the Humanitarian Gaze: Visual Representation of Genocide Survivors in the Eastern Mediterranean," Humanity 14, no. 2 (2023): 186-211.
- With Mustafa Aksakal, "Hungry for Change: Civilian Challenges to the State and Demands for Food," in Hunger Re-Draws the Map, Cambridge University Press.
- "Feeding the City: The Beirut Municipality and Civilian Provisioning during World War I," International Journal of Middle East Studies 46 (2014): 737-758.
- "Politics of Wartime Relief in Ottoman Beirut," First World War Studies 5 (2014): 69-82.
- "Food and Nutrition (Ottoman Empire/Middle East)," 1914-1918-Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War (2014).
- "Disease and Public Health (Ottoman Empire/Middle East)," 1914-1918-Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War (2014).
Reviews and Public Writing
- Review essays and roundtables in Diplomatic History, H-Environment Roundtable Reviews, First World War Studies, The American Historical Review, and International Journal of Middle East Studies.
- "Soliloquous Solipsism," in Being Human During Covid, University of Michigan Press, 2021.
- "New Texts Out Interview with Jadaliyya," 2018.
- Essential Readings: History of Modern Famine in the Middle East, Jadaliyya, 2018.
- "As Bad as Death," Stanford University Press Blog, 2018.
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
European Research Council Synergy Research Grant
Project Partner
2025-2030
Associate Professor Support Fund
University of Michigan
W 2023
Undergraduate Teaching Award
University of Michigan
W 2022
International and Area Studies Fellowship
National Endowment for the Humanities
2018-2019
ACLS Fellowship
American Council for Learned Societies
2018-2019
Institute for Advanced Studies Fellowship
Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg, Delmenhorst, Germany
2018-2019
Large Course Initiative Award
LSA/CLRT, University of Michigan
2015
Eisenberg Faculty Fellowship
Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies
2014-2015
Best Dissertation Award
Syrian Studies Association
2012
Selected Invited Talks and Conference Contributions
- "New Directions in Human Rights History," American Historical Association Annual Conference, Chicago, January 2026.
- "Famine and Starvation Crimes: Humanitarian Management of Colonial Settler Regimes Past and Present," MESA, November 2024.
- "The Ethics of Blessed Entertainment: The Visual and Affective Fundraising Strategies of German Humanitarianism on Behalf of Ottoman Armenians (1890-1930)," Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, September 2024.
- "Impossible Conditions of Life: Famine and Humanitarian Management as Permanent Security Tools in Gaza," Max-Weber-Kolleg, University of Erfurt, June 2024.
- "Humanitarian Management and Permanent Security as Tools of Occupation," University of Michigan-Flint, April 2024.
- "Place-making: Beirut's Armenian Dwellings Now and Then," Wolf Humanities Center, University of Pennsylvania, March 2023.
- "Violence, Aid and Non-State Actors: Humanitarian Intervention in Nineteenth Century Anatolia," Berlin, Germany, August 2021.
- "The Humanitarian Gaze: Visual Representation of Genocide Survivors in the Eastern Mediterranean," Lepsius House, Potsdam, June 2021.
- "Food (in) Security: Responses and Resilience to Famine in the Middle East," AHA Annual Meeting, January 2020.
- "Saving Bodies, Saving Souls: The Maronite Church Relief Work During WWI," Freie Universitat Berlin, July 2019.
Organized Symposia, Editorial Work, and Professional Roles
Selected Organized Events
- The China Initiative and Its Aftermath, Co-Organizer, U-M Faculty Senate Office, 2024.
- Academic and Intellectual Freedom: The Palestine Exception, Co-Organizer, U-M Faculty Senate Office, 2024.
- Deadly Psychiatry: A Global Study of Psychiatric Biopolitics, Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg, 2023.
- No Straight Line: Peculiar Pasts and Crooked Futures, Symposium in Honor of Geoff Eley, U-M, 2022.
- Celebrating 40 Years of Armenian Studies, U-M, 2022.
- Environmental Armenia: The Climate Crisis, Conflict and Activism, U-M, 2021.
Editorial Boards
- Journal for Genocide Research, July 2024-present.
- Comparative Studies in Society and History, July 2024-present.
- Disobedience Press, October 2023-present.
- 1914-1918 Online Encyclopedia, Middle East/Ottoman Section Editor, 2016-present.
Affiliations, Reviewing, and Languages
Active in the American Historical Association, Middle East Studies Association, Society of Armenian Studies, Syrian Studies Association, and the International Society for First World War Studies. Peer reviewer for journals and presses including Cambridge, Bloomsbury, Edinburgh, Stanford, Manchester, Nebraska, and leading journals in genocide, Middle East, and global history.
Research languages: German (native), Arabic (intermediate), French (reading), Armenian (beginning).
Graduate Advising
- Tugce Kayaal, Furman University, dissertation co-chair.
- Dzovinar Dederian, UC Berkeley, committee member.
- Kelly Hannavi, dissertation co-chair.
- Amelia Burke, dissertation co-chair.
- Dima Saad, dissertation co-chair.
- Mano Sakaryan, dissertation chair.
- Jamal Dilman-Hasso, Ryan Glauser, Alex Jreisat, Israa Khalifa, and Zhaina Meirkhan on dissertation and preliminary committees.
Selected Service
University of Michigan History and PICS
- Director, Program for International and Comparative Studies, 2023-present.
- History Department Executive Committee, 2023-2025.
- Public Engagement and Career Diversity Coordinator, 2019-2021.
- Undergraduate and Honors Committees, multiple years.
- Major and interim reviews for lecturers in PICS across 2014-2025.
Armenian Studies and University Service
- Director, Center for Armenian Studies, 2019-2022.
- Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, 2024-present.
- Steering Committee of the Donia Human Rights Center, 2025-present.
- Davis, Markert, and Nichols Academic Freedom Lecture Committee, 2021-present; Co-Chair, 2023-2024.
- International Institute Steering Committee, 2021-2024.