Executive Board Bios

Sari Abboud is a Lebanese-American Senior from London, United Kingdom double majoring in Italian Studies and International Relations with a focus in the Middle East.  Sari was previously the co-president of the Arab Students Association (ASA) and is a co-leader of the New Initiative For Middle East Peace (NIMEP). In the past two years, Sari has held various positions in the ASA as well as Theta Chi Fraternity. He recently worked at State Street Corporation doing paralegal work involving translating contracts from Italian to English. Sari is fluent in Arabic, Italian, and Spanish. Furthermore, he has traveled extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East to places such as Lebanon, Kuwait, Italy, Norway and Morocco. His email is Sari.El-Abboud@tufts.edu.

Phil Hoffman is a Junior from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey double-majoring in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. This is his third year of involvement in NIMEP, where he now serves as the group's co-leader and organizer for NIMEP's upcoming winter research trip to Turkey. He was previously an executive board member of the Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), a group that serves to promote greater understanding between civilian undergraduates and military cadets. He recently helped to organize a civil-society conference in Tunisia for the American Islamic Congress, a non-profit group that promotes civil-society reform in the Middle East, and is also proficient in French. He can be reached at Philip.Hoffman@tufts.edu. 

Stephanos Karavas is a Senior at Tufts who is majoring in History with a concentration in the Middle East and minoring in Political Science with a concentration in Foreign Policy Analysis. Having traveled extensively throughout Greece and the Middle East, Stephanos has a deep interest in the affairs of the Mediterranean world and broadened his experience by co-leading NIMEP's 2012 fact-finding mission to Tunisia and researching constitutional reform. Stephanos participated in NIMEP's 2010 fact-finding mission to Kuwait and the UAE where he investigated the subject of women's political rights in Kuwait. In addition, he has moderated weekly dialogues for NIMEP in past semesters as well. Apart from his studies at Tufts and his involvement in NIMEP, Stephanos enjoys exploring the Middle East through other dimensions in addition to research, such as popular culture, cinema, music and through playing the Oud. His main area of interest in the Middle East includes the rise of Turkey, its effects on the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean and its regional implications on a wider level. He is fluent in English, Modern Greek, Spanish and is currently learning Arabic. He can be reached at Stephanos.Karavas@tufts.edu.