Joshua Schreier received his BA from the University of Chicago, and his MA and PhD from New York University. Schreier works at the intersection of Middle Eastern, Algerian, Jewish, and French histories. His research focuses on North African Jews in the decades before and immediately following the French conquest of Algeria. He is interested in how the occupation affected local commercial networks and alliances, how the occupiers turned to local notables for help and expertise, and how pre-colonial elites continued to exercise influence under the new order. He also looks at how the French deployed the ideology of “civilization” to consolidate colonial rule, even while local actors co-opted, reformulated, or deflected this ideology. His books include Arabs of the Jewish Faith: The Civilizing Mission in Colonial Algeria, (Rutgers, 2010), and The Merchants of Oran: A Jewish Port at the Dawn of Empire (Stanford, 2017). His articles have appeared in The International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, French Historical Studies, and the Journal of North African Studies.
