Associate Professor of  Women’s Studies and International Studies at Denison University. She has earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Tel-Aviv University, a master’s degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a doctorate in Women’s and Gender Studies from Clark University.  Her doctoral research is on the gendered politics of location of three generations of Palestinian women in Israel, 1948-1998. She teaches courses on transnational feminism; feminism in the Middle East and North Africa; and gender, war and conflict. Her current research focuses on the impact of war and displacement on Iraqi women refugees in Jordan. Isis previously served as a researcher on women’s human rights in the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch and at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network. She is the co-editor with Rhoda Kanaaneh of Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel (SUNY Press, 2010). She is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa.

Her other publications include:

"Gendering the Narratives of Three Generations of Palestinian Women in Israel."  Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel. Eds. Rhoda Kanaaneh and Isis Nusair. New York: SUNY Press, 2010. 75-92. full text [pdf]

"Introduction" (with Rhoda Kanaaneh)  Displaced at Home: Ethnicity and Gender among Palestinians in Israel. Eds. Rhoda Kanaaneh and Isis Nusair. New York: SUNY Press, 2010. 1-18. full text [pdf]

“Gender Mainstreaming and Feminist Organizing in the Middle East and North Africa.” Women and war in the Middle East. Eds. Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt. London: Zed Books, 2009. 131-157. full text [pdf]

“Gendered, Racialized and Sexualized Torture at Abu-Ghraib.” Feminism and War: Confronting U.S. Imperialism. Eds. Robin Riley, Chandra Mohanty, Minnie Bruce Pratt. London: Zed Books, 2008.  179-193. full text [pdf]

"The Integration of the Human Rights of Women from the Middle East and North Africa in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership" (with Rabea Naciri). Denmark: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, 2003.

“Gendered Politics of Location: Generational Intersections.” Women and the Politics of Military Confrontation: Palestinian and Israeli Gendered Narratives of Dislocation. Eds. Nahla Abdo and Ronit Lentin. London: Berghahn Books, 2002. 89-99. full text [pdf]

“Women and Militarization in Israel: Forgotten Letters in the Midst of Conflict.” Frontline Feminisms: Women, War, and Resistance. Eds. Marguerite Waller and Jennifer Rycenga. London: Routledge, 2001. 113-128. full text [pdf]