Beth Mardutho Staff

George A. Kiraz, Founder and Director

George A. Kiraz is the founder and director of Beth Mardutho. He founded Beth Mardutho in 1992 as an institution dedicated to furthering the study of Syriac and the Syriac tradition throughout the world. George has personally directed many projects through Beth Mardutho, and his own personal library forms a significant portion of the Beth Mardutho Research Library.

James E. Walters, Administrator

James began working for Beth Mardutho in the summer of 2010, when he moved to Princeton to begin his doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary. James has worked on various projects at Beth Mardutho, such as cataloguing a large portion of the Beth Mardutho Research Library, maintaining the website, and managing the Bnay Beth Mardutho subscriptions. James' own academic work focuses on the early expressions of Christianity in the Syriac-speaking world and on the Syriac literature of the fourth century.

Thomas Carlson, Research Fellow

Thomas Carlson, who finished his Ph.D. in History at Princeton University in 2012, is serving as a research fellow for Beth Mardutho. He will be involved in a number of projects, but he will primarily work on the Syriac Reference Portal project. Thomas' own academic research focuses on medieval Middle Eastern Christianity in context. He is interested in all varieties of Middle Eastern Christianity, how they distinguish themselves from each other, how Christians of various sorts interact with Christians of different sorts, as well as with Muslims and with other religious groups around them. He is particularly interested in medieval Middle Eastern definitions of what Christianity is, as a comparison and contrast to European definitions of Christianity, whether medieval or modern, and to provide clarification of which elements of Middle East culture are distinctively Islamic and which are regionally shared. He is also interested in how religious affiliations qualify or reinforce ethnic identifications and political allegiances.

Gabriel Bar-Sawme, Intern

Gabriel Bar-Sawme was born and raised in Sweden. He grew in the Syriac Orthodox Church and started to study Syriac at the age of 12. He holds two bachelor degrees, one in Social Work and one in Theology, both from Sweden. He is currently enrolled at Princeton Theological Seminary where he is doing his graduate studies. Gabriel is also working as a Youth Director for the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese for Eastern USA and works as an intern at Beth Mardutho where he is reviewing known sources for the Syriac Orthodox Liturgy and working on writing entries that will eventually be published as a Encyclopedia of Liturgy. Gabriel is married to Lydia Bar-Sawme and lives in Princeton, USA.