Allen James Fromherz, Ph.D. (2006), is Professor of Middle East, Gulf and Mediterranean History at Georgia State University where he directs the Middle East Studies Center. He is the author of The Almohads, Rise of an Islamic Empire (IB Tauris), Ibn Khaldun, Life and Times (Edinburgh), The Near West (Edinburgh), Qatar, A Modern History (Georgetown) and is editor of The Gulf in World History (Edinburgh, 2018). He is also President of the American Institute for Maghrib Studies AIMS (2015-2021).

Nadav Samin is a historian of the modern Middle East. He is the author of Of Sand or Soil: Genealogy and Tribal Belonging in Saudi Arabia (Princeton), as well as numerous journal articles. He has taught at Dartmouth College, New York University, Hunter College (CUNY), and elsewhere. Mr. Samin received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University in 2013, and is an Affiliate of the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore.