Arbella Bet-Shlimon<p>Hello everyone—here’s my <a href="https://spore.social/tags/introduction" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>introduction</span></a> post! [Edit: I wrote this in December 2022.]</p><p>I’m a historian. I teach &amp; write about the <a href="https://spore.social/tags/MiddleEast" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>MiddleEast</span></a> with a focus on twentieth-century <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://a.gup.pe/u/iraq" class="u-url mention">@<span>iraq</span></a></span> </p><p>I live in <a href="https://spore.social/tags/Seattle" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Seattle</span></a> &amp; boost local news. I’m <a href="https://spore.social/tags/Assyrian" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Assyrian</span></a>.</p><p>My first book, City of Black Gold (2019), is a history of Kirkuk - where the <a href="https://spore.social/tags/oil" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>oil</span></a> industry started in <a href="https://spore.social/tags/Iraq" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Iraq</span></a> - that explains how ethnicity as a political practice grew out of the intersections of colonialism, nation building, urbanization, and <a href="https://spore.social/tags/petroleum" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>petroleum</span></a>.</p>