Razan Bayan is a PhD student in the joint Peace Studies and History program with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Department of History. She holds B.A.s in Human Rights and History from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, with minors in Arabic, African/Middle Eastern Studies, and Mathematics.
Razan's most recent study focused on the collective amnesia in Muslim American youth regarding the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib detention centers. Building off of this study, Razan currently researches the construction of US collective memory (or the lack thereof) of state violence against Muslims during the War on Terror. Her other research interests include securitization; US militarism and imperialism; colonial history and postcolonialism; and Islamophobia studies.