Laure Salma Assaf

Assistant Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies, Anthropology and Social Research and Public Policy Affiliation: NYU Abu Dhabi
Education: PhD Paris Nanterre University

Research Areas: Arabian Peninsula; United Arab Emirates, Youth, Migration, Hierarchies, Social change, Anthropology


Laure Assaf is an anthropologist and a specialist of Middle Eastern studies. Her research interests focus on youth, urbanity, and migration in contemporary Emirati society and the broader Gulf region.

She was trained in anthropology at Paris Nanterre University and in Arabic at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. She is currently working on a book manuscript derived from her PhD thesis, entitled Arab youths of Abu Dhabi: Status categories, urban sociability and the shaping of subjectivities in the United Arab Emirates (2017).

She is also an Associate Researcher at the French Center for Archeology and Social Sciences (CEFAS) in Kuwait.

Courses Taught