Paula A. Sanders is Professor of History at Rice University, where she teaches courses in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations, Medieval Studies, and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her areas of research are medieval Islamic and Egyptian history, with a focus in Ismaili Shiism. Sanders’ current book project, Creating Medieval Cairo in the Nineteenth Century, examines the politics of nineteenth-century architectural conservation in Cairo, demonstrating the dynamic process by which the historic city we call Cairo came into existence and continues to be sustained by ideas and practices that are rooted in nineteenth-century colonialism.