2022
miriam cooke
Asian & Middle East Studies
Education
1980 | D.Phil., Arabic Literature, St. Antony's College, Oxford University, England |
1971 | M.A. Honors, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Edinburgh University, Scotland |
Professional Positions
2017 to date | Series Editor, “Written Culture and Identity” (I.B. Tauris & Bloomsbury) |
2014-18 | Co-editor Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies |
2012-22 Fall | Visiting Professor, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Istanbul |
2012 Spring | Visiting Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, Dartmouth College |
2011-16 | Director of Duke-UNC Graduate Middle East Studies Certificate |
2009-10 | Co-director Franklin Humanities Institute seminar “Innovating Forms” |
2008-15 | PI at Duke for two successful rounds of Title VI funding for DUMESC Founding Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies (DUMESC) |
2006 Spring | Visiting Professor at Islamic State University, Jakarta, Indonesia |
2004-09 | Education Director, Duke Islamic Studies Center |
2001-2004 | Chair, Asian and African Languages and Literature (AALL), Duke |
2001-3 | President of the Association of Middle Eastern Women’s Studies |
2000 Spring | Visiting Professor at Tunis I University |
1996-99 | Chair, Asian & African Languages & Literature (re-named AMES) |
1998 Summer | Visiting Professor at Bucharest University, Romania |
1997-2004 | Chair, Mediterranean Study Center |
1994 to date | Series Editor, “Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East” (Syracuse UP) |
1993 | Full Professor, AALL (re-named AMES) |
1987-94 | Founding Director, AALL (re-named AMES) |
1987-93 | Associate Professor, AALL (re-named AMES) |
1980-87 | Assistant Professor, Center for International Studies, Duke |
Awards and Honors
2019 | Senior Research Fellow, Exeter University, England |
2015 | Labex Researcher, Maison Mediterranneene des Sciences de l’Homme, Aix-Marseille University, France |
2013 | Encyclopedia.com Pembroke Feminist Theory Archive – papers solicited |
2012 | Named Braxton Craven Distinguished Professor of Arab Cultures |
2010 | Scholar in Residence, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar |
2008-16 | Board of Governors of the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies |
2006-7 | Who’s Who of American Women |
2003 | Arts Council Playwrights and Screenwriters Competition, judge |
2001 | Women Claim Islam Choice Outstanding Academic Book |
2001 | Trent Foundation award for Muslim Networks Workshop |
2000 | Vice-Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies award for Muslim Networks |
1997 | Women and the War Story Choice Outstanding Academic Book |
1995-6 | Fulbright Scholarship in Syria - “The Politics of Cultural Production” |
1994 | North Carolina Humanities Council grant for Genocide Conference |
1990 | H.F. Guggenheim Consultancy for “Violence and Post-Colonial Islam” Opening the Gates. A Century of Arab Feminist Writing (co-edited with Margot Badran) First Prize: Chicago Women in Publishing Books of Contemporary Relevance Mellon Fellow, Gender and War Institute, Dartmouth College |
1989 | Duke Research Council “War and Literature of South Asian Women” |
1986 | SSRC Scholarship American Association of University Women Fellowship |
1985 | Trent grant to develop exchange with University of Qadi Ayad (Morocco) The Anatomy of an Egyptian Intellectual: Yahya Haqqi Choice Outstanding Book |
1982 | Duke Research Council “Responses of Palestinian Women in Israel to the Lebanese Civil War” Fulbright Research in Lebanon and Yemen |
Publications
Books
- The Anatomy of an Egyptian Intellectual: Yahya Haqqi Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1984
- Arabic translation by Egyptian Cultural Council Press 2005 (2nd edition 2009)
- Good Morning! (translation and edition of stories by Yahya Haqqi). Washington, D.C.: Three Continents Press, 1987
- Partially reprinted in Clerk & Siegel, Modern Literatures of the Non-Western World, Harper Collins 1994
- War’s Other Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War London/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988
- Paperback by Syracuse University Press, 1996
- Arabic translation by Egyptian Cultural Council Press 2006
- Opening the Gates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing (co-edited with Margot Badran), London: Virago/ Indiana University Press, 1990
- Dutch translation by Veen Press: Ongesluierde Stemmen 1991
- German translation by Rowohlt: Lesebuch der “Neuen Frau” Araberinnen über sich Selbst, 1992
- 2nd edition with new introduction Indiana University Press 2004
- Gendering War Talk (co-edited Angela Woollacott) Princeton University Press, 1993
- Princeton Legacy Library 2014
- Blood into Ink: 20th Century South Asian and Middle Eastern Women Write War (co-edited with Roshni Rustomji-Kerns) Westview Press, 1994
- Women and the War Story, University of California Press 1997
- Hayati, My Life: A Novel, Syracuse University Press 2000
- Arabic translation by al-Jundi Press in Damascus 2004
- Women Claim Islam: Creating Islamic Feminism Through Literature, New York: Routledge 2001
- Arabic translation by National Translation Center Press in Cairo 2010
- Chinese translation of chapter 5 in Newsletter of Eastern Literary Studies, Peking University, March 2012
- Chapter One republished in Global Literary Theory Richard Lane (ed.) 2013
- Muslim Networks. From Hajj to Hip Hop (with Bruce Lawrence) UNC Press 2005
- Permanent Black Press, India, 2006
- Arabic translation by Oubekon, Saudi Arabia 2010
- Dissident Syria: Making Oppositional Arts Official Duke University Press 2007
- Arabic translation by Syrian Center for Political and Strategic Studies 2014
- Mediterranean Passages from Delos to Derrida (with Grant Parker & Erdag Goknar) UNC Press 2008
- Nazira Zeineddine: Biography of an Islamic Feminist Pioneer Oxford: Oneworld Press (Makers of the Muslim World Series) 2010
- Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf Berkeley: University of California Press 2014
- Dancing in Damascus: Creativity, Resilience and the Syrian Revolution NY: Routledge 2017
ARTICLES, CHAPTERS IN BOOKS
- “Yahya Haqqi as Literary Critic and Nationalist”, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 13/2 (1981), 21-34
- “Egypt-Baptism of Earth”, Arabiyya, 14 (1981), 5978
- “Lebanon – Is there a Future? Echos from Contemporary Lebanese Women Writers”, South Atlantic Quarterly, 81/3 (1982), 261-270
- “Lebanon at Bay. Redefining the Self through War”, Journal of Arab Affairs 2/1 (1982), 103-121
- “Lebanon. Theatre of the Absurd…Theatre of Dreams”, Journal of Arabic Literature, 13 (1982), 124-141
- “Ibn Khaldun and Language. From Linguistic Habit to Philological Craft”, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 1983, XVIII (34), 179-188
- “Telling Their Lives. A Hundred Years of Arab Women’s Writings”, World Literature Today, Spring 1986, Vol. 60, no. 2, 212-216
- “Trends in Modern Arabic Literary Criticism” Arabiyya, 1987, 20/1 & 2, 277-296
- “Women Write War: The Centering of the Beirut Decentrists”. Papers on Lebanon, Centre for Lebanese Studies, Oxford, no. 6, 1987, 22 pages
[Republication: “Women Write War. The Feminization of Lebanese Society in the War Literature of Emily Nasrallah” in British Society for Middle Eastern Studies Bulletin vol. 14/1 (1988), 52-67] - “Prisons. Women Write about Islam”, Religion and Literature, 1988, 20/1, 139-153
- “Naguib Mahfouz” (review article), Middle East Journal, 1989, vol. 43 (3), 507-511
- “Deconstructing War Discourse: Women’s Participation in the Algerian Revolution”, Working Paper #187 for Women in International Development, Michigan State U. June 1989, 26 pages
- “The Heart’s Directions”, World and I, March 1991
[Reprinted partially under title “The Veil Does Not Prevent Women from Working” in Ourselves among Others: Cross-Cultural Readings for Writers (ed. Carol Verburg) St. Martin’s P.1994]
- “Postmodern Wars. Phallomilitary Spectacle in The DTO” Journal of Urban and Cultural Studies, Nov 1991, 27-40
- “Arab Women Writers”, M.M. Badawi (ed.) in Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Modern Arabic Literature, (Cambridge U P, 1992, 443-462)
- [Translated into Arabic “Al-katibat al-`arabiyat” in Al-adab al-`arabi al-hadith, Jeddah: Al-nadi al-adabi al-thaqafi 2002]
- “Men Constructed in the Mirror of Prostitution” in M. Beard & A. Haydar (eds.) Naguib Mahfouz: From Regional Fame to Global Recognition (Syracuse U.P 1993), 106-125
- [Reprinted in Peter F. Murphy (ed.), Fictions of Masculinity: Crossing Cultures Crossing Sexualities, New York University, 1994] 96-120
- “Wo-man. Retelling the War Myth” in Cooke & Woollacott (1993), 177-204
- “Apple, Nabila and Ramza Arab Women’s Narratives of Resistance” in Lena Ross (ed.) To Speak or to be Silent: The Paradox of Disobedience in the Lives of Women, Chiron Publications, 1993, 85-96
- “Femmes Arabes. Guerres Arabes”, Peuples Mediterraneens, 64-65 (1993), 25-48
- “Zaynab al-Ghazali. Saint or Subversive?” Die Welt des Islams, 34/1 (1994), 1-20
- “Death and Desire in Iraqi War Fiction” in Roger Allen, Hilary Kilpatrick and Ed de Moor, Love and Sexuality in Modern Arabic Literature, Saqi Press, 1995, 184-199
- “Arab Women Arab Wars” in Cultural Critique (1994-5), 5-29
- “Reimagining Lebanon” Valentin Mudimbe (ed.) Nations, Identities, Cultures South Atlantic Quarterly (1995) 1075-1102
- “Ayyam min hayati: The Prison Memoirs of a Muslim Sister” Journal of Arabic Literature 26/1-2, 1995, 147-164
- [Reprint in The Postcolonial Crescent. Islam’s Impact on Contemporary Literature (John C. Hawley, ed.), 1997]
- “Mothers, Rebels and Textual Exchanges”, in Karen Gould and Keith Walker Beyond the Hexagon: Women Writing in French, Minnesota U.P., 1996, 140-156
- “The Globalization of Arab Women Writers” in Femme et Ecritures (Bahithat II 1995-96) 175-198
- “Al-mar’a wa qissat al-harb” in Al-Bayan (Kuwait) #305, 1995, 105-112
- “Prisms on Boundaries” in Bouazza Benachir (ed.) Le Croisement des Cultures Marrakesh U.P., 1995, 255-263
- “Subverting the Dominant Paradigms” in Judith Stiehm, Women and the Military, Temple University Press 1996, 235-269
- “Muslim Women Between Human Rights and Islamic Norms” with Bruce Lawrence in Irene Bloom (ed.) Religious Diversity and Human Rights Columbia University Press, 1996, 313-331
- “Listen to the Image Speak” in Cultural Values 1/1 1997, 101-117
- [Reprint in Routledge Reader of Intercultural Communication 2004, 2nd 2010, 3rd ed. 2016)
- “La femme et l’histoire de la guerre” in Fouzia Rhissassi (ed.), Le discours sur la femme, Rabat, 1998, 179-187
- “The Other Language” Peuples Mediterraneens, 1998, 131-156
- [Reprint in S. Morton & C. Schlote (eds) Reading Literature from the Middle East and its Diasporas 2009]
- “Recent Scholarship on Women in the Middle East” in National Women’s Studies Association Journal, 11/1, 1999, 178-184
- “Feminist Transgressions in the Postcolonial Arab World” in Critique 14, 1999, 93-105
- Translated into Chinese Middle East Studies of Peking University 1, 2015
- “Mapping Peace” in Lamia Shehadeh (ed.), Women and War in Lebanon (Florida University Press 1999), 73-89
- “Mediterranean Thinking: From Netizen to Medizen” in Geographical Review 89/2, April 1999, 290-300
- [Republished on-line by Nadi al-Fikr al-`Arabi April 2004)
- “Middle Eastern Literature’ in Understanding the Contemporary Middle Midde East Deborah J. Gerner (ed.) (Boulder: Lynne Rienner 2000) 345-382
- [2nd edition 2004; 3rd edition 2008; 4th edition 2013; 5th edition 2019]
- “Living in Truth” in Tradition, Modernity and Postmodernity in Arabic Literature, A. Kamal & W. Hallaq (eds.) Leiden: Brill, 2000, 203-221
- “Multiple Critique: Islamic Feminist Strategies” Nepantala 1/1 2000, 91-110
- [Reprint in L. Donaldson & K. Pui-Lan, Postcolonialism, Feminism and Religious Discourse (eds) Routledge 2002]
- “Critique multiple: Les strategies rhetoriques feministes islamiques” in L-Homme et la Societe 158/4 2005, 169-190
- “Women, Religion & Postcolonial Arab World” in Cultural Critique 45, 2000, 150-184
- “War, its machine and the women who fight them” Duke University Forum: The war against terrorism (October 17, 2001 https://sites.duke.edu/forum/war-its-machines-and-the-women-who-fight-them/)
- “Ghassan al-Jaba`i. Prison Literature in Syria after 1980″ in World Literature Today 75/2 2001, 237-245
- “La pensee mediterraneenne” in J.Chaker (ed.) Mediterranee et Mediterraneens. Sociabilite, representations Tunis 2002, 15-28
- “War, Gender and Military Studies. A Review Essay” Journal of NWSA 13/3 2001, 181-88
- “Censorship in Syria” in Censorship: A World Encyclopedia (2001), 2363-2367
- “Near Middle East and North African Culture” in International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2001), 10426-31
- “Humanist Nationalism” in Fatima Muge Gocek (ed.) Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East SUNY Press 2002, 125-140
- “Beirut Reborn. The Political Aesthetics of Auto-Destruction” Yale Journal of Criticism, 15/2, 2002, 393-424
- “Islamic Feminism before and after September 11″ Journal of Gender Law & Policy (9) 2002, 227-235
- “Saving Brown Women” in Signs 28/1, 2002, 468-470
- “A la Recherche de la Langue Maternelle” in J.Chaker & m.cooke (eds.) L’identite. Choix ou combat Tunis 2002, 141-152
- “Euro-American Women’s Studies in Islamic Cultures” Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures Leiden: Brill, 2003, 428-438 [Arabic translation 568-580]
- “Al-adibat al-arabiyat fi al-qarn al-ishrin: manzur amriki” Al-mar’a al-`arabiya wa al-mutaghayyurat al-`alamiya Cairo 2003, 105-112
- “Contesting Campus Watch” Al-Azhar Journal of Research 7/1, 2004, 5-31
- [Republished on-line in Muntada al-kitab March 2005]
- “In Search of Leo Africanus” (with Bruce Lawrence) in Transitions Abroad April 2005
- “No such thing as women’s literature” in Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies 1 #2 Spring 2005
- “Women’s jihad before and after 9/11” in Daniel J. Sherman & Terry Nardin (eds.) Terror, Culture, Politics: Rethinking 9/11 Indiana University Press 2006, 165-183
- “Critique multiple : Les strategies rhetoriques feministes islamiques” in Feminismes – Theories, Mouvements, Conflits – L’Homme et la Societe (158) Editions Anthropos 2006
- “Women and Islamism in Europe” Neo Magazine July 2007
- “The Muslimwoman” Contemporary Islam, 2007, 139-154
- “Academic Freedom: the Danger of Critical Thinking” International Studies Perspectives 8/4, 2007
- “Baghdad Burning. Women Write War in Iraq” World Literature Today 2007
- “Dying to be Free: Wilderness Writing from Lebanon, Arabia and Libya” in Cheryl Toman (ed.) On Evelyne Accad: Essays in Literature, Feminism and Cultural Studies Summa Press 2007, 13-32
- “Deploying the Muslimwoman” (including roundtable response to mc essay) in Journal for Feminist Studies of Religion 2008
- “Yahya Haqqi: A Biography” in Wael Husayn (ed.) Wujuh Yahya Haqqi Egyptian Cultural Council Press 2008, 389-419
- “Yahya Haqqi: Arabic Wordsmith” in Roger Allen (ed.) Essays in Arabic Literary Biography 1850-1950 Harrassowitz Verlag 2010, 113-125
- “Arab Feminist Research and activism: Bridging the gap between the theoretical and the practical” Feminist Theory 2010 11:121
- “Performing Ibn Khaldun in Syria: The Role of the Intellectual in Troubled Times” in Houari Touati (ed.) Figures d’Ibn Khaldun: Reception, Appropriation et Usages Algiers: CNRPAH 2011
- “The Cell Story: Syrian Prison Stories after Hafiz Asad” in Middle East Critique 20/2, 2011, 169-188
- “Inside Dissident Syria” Al-Jazeera October 15, 2012
- “The New Empire” Boundary 2 May 17, 2013
- “Hopes and Disappointments: Revolutionary Narratives from Egyptian and Syrian Feminists” Jadaliyya July 24, 2013
- “Tadmor’s Ghosts” in Review of Middle East Studies 47/1 Summer 2013
- « Réseaux d’artistes et d’écrivains dans la nouvelle Méditerranée » in Méditerranée/ Mondialisation Paris : CNRS 2013
- « Recording World Wars » Review article in IJMES 46/4 November 2014
- « Ungendering Peace Talk » in Yasmin Saikia & Chad Haines (eds.) Women and Peace in the Islamic World : Gender, Agency and Influence London : I.B. Tauris 2015, 25-42
- « It’s a Revolution : The Cultural Outpouring Fueled by the Syrian War » in PS 21 : Project for the Study of the 21st Century March 2015 http://projects21.com/2015/03/08/its-a-revolution-the-cultural-outpouring-fueled-by-syrian-war/
- « Near Middle East/ North Africa Studies : Culture » in James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 16. Oxford: Elsevier. 2015 pp. 361–366.
- “Jewish Arabs in the Israeli Asylum: A Literary Reflection” in Roger Allen and Robin Ostle (eds.) Studying Modern Arabic Literature: Mustafa Badawi Scholar and Critic Edinburgh University Press 2015, 139-158
- “Nazira Zeineddine: Pioneer of Islamic Feminism” in Susan Bruce & Katherine Smits (eds.) Feminist Moments: Reading Feminist Texts London: Bloomsbury 2016, 115-123
- “Women and the Arab Spring: A transnational feminist movement” in Fatima Sadiqi (ed.) Women’s Movements in Post-Arab Spring North Africa NY: Palgrave Macmillan 2016, 31-44
- “Nawal El Saadawi: Writer and Revolutionary” in Robin Goodman, Literature and the Development of Feminist Theory Cambridge University Press 2016, 214-229
- “Creativity and Resilience in the Syrian Revolution” in R/evolutions: Global Trends and Regional Issues 4/1 2016, 90-108
- “Arab Women Writers 1980-2010” in Muhsin al-Musawi Arabic Literature for the Classroom: Teaching Methods, Theories and Texts London: Routledge 2017, 40-53
- “Reimagining the Syrian Revolution” in ASAP May 2018, 269-278
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/700558/pdf - “Curating the Syrian Revolution Online” in Susan Stanford Friedman Contemporary Revolutions: Turning Back to the Future in 21st Century Literature and Art London: Bloomsbury 2019, 103-122
https://find.library.duke.edu/catalog/DUKE008436322 - “Female Saints in Islam” in Tonaga & Fujii (eds.) Islamic Studies and the Study of Sufism in Academia: Rethinking Methodologies Kyoto University, 2019, 353-363
- “The Syrian Revolution, Art and the End of Ideology” in Anna Ball & Karim Matar (eds.) The Edinburgh Companion to the Postcolonial Middle East Edinburgh University Press 2019, 427-455
- “On Arabic: Reflections from Edinburgh University to Duke University” in Mbaye Lo The Arabic Classroom: Context, Text and Learners Routledge 2019, 63-69
- “Murad vs. ISIS: Rape as a Weapon of Genocide” JMEWS 15/ 3, 2019, 261-285
- “Literature in the Arab Postcolony” in Larbi Sadiki (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Middle East Politics 2020
- “Cold War Literature of the Middle East and North Africa” in Andrew Hammond (ed.) The Palgrave Handbook of Cold War Literature 2020, 591-611
- “Hijabi Activism” in Al-Raida 44/2, 2020, 1-22
- “Protest in the Age of Cyberatomism” in Protest #1 2021, 229-247
SHORT PIECES
- “Islamic Women Activists” interview in Yeni Shafaq October 13, 2018 https://www.yenisafak.com/hayat/muslumankadinlarcok-guclu-3401900
- “Tribal Modern” LSE Blog June 2018 http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2018/08/02/tribal-modern-branding-new-nations-in-the-gulf/
- “Intelligent Souls?” JMEWS July 2021
- “Novel Traces of the Qur’an” in Novel: A Forum on Fiction 54:3 November 2021
INVITED TALKS AND KEYNOTES SINCE 2017
2022
March
- “War in Arab Feminist Political Thought” Tulane University
January
- “Arab Feminist Political Thought” Kashmir University
2021
November
- “Women and Violence” Keynote Umran International Conference, Istanbul and Patna
March
- Nawal El Saadawi Memorial Panel (organized at Duke University)
April
- “Arab women writers” Dickinson College (virtual)
2020
All talks and conference presentations March-Nov canceled due to pandemic
November
- “Nawal El Saadawi: Theorizing the imagination and imagining theory” Keynote at International Conference Celebrating Arab Women London (virtual)
- 4 lectures on Arabic Literature (Jahiliya; Adab; Rihla; Women Writers) Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul (virtual)
2019
October
- “Yazidi women challenge Daesh” Keynote at Al-Kitab University conference on Women, War and Peacemaking, Erbil, Iraq
April
- “Julie Mehretu’s ‘Epigraph, Damascus’—a response” MIT
March
- “Yazidi Women Challenge Daesh” Keynote at Feminism in the MENA Region: Women’s Rights in a Post-Globalist World, Kenitra, Morocco
- “Archiving the Syrian Revolution” Max Plank Institute, Goettingen, Germany
- “The Mahram Verses and their Abusers” Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
- “Writing a Life with too few Facts” Master Class Exeter University, UK
February
- “Lebanon’s Lost Pioneer of Islamic Feminism” AUB, Beirut
- “The Syrian Revolution after 8 Years” Exeter University
January
“Translating Classics” Gulf University of Science and Technology, Kuwait
2018
November
- “Ma al-hall li mu`anat al-ifriqiyat?” (What is the solution to the suffering of African women?) Keynote at African and Moroccan Women International Conference, Tiznit, Morocco
October
- “Crossing Borders: Literary Perspectives on Women, Culture and Islam” 7-lecture series at Istanbul Tasawwuf Institute
- “Autobiography and Islam” 5-lecture series at Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Istanbul
- “Arab Women Write War” Zaim University, Istanbul
June
- “Tribal Modern” at Tribe and State in the Middle East LSE Conference, London
April
- “Dancing in Damascus” Smith College
- “Murad v Daesh: Yazidi Women Break the Silence” Keynote at Hard Times Conference
at UC Berkeley
2017
November
- “Networking Syrian Revolutionary Artists” Dallas Humanities Institute
October
- “Syrian Revolutionary Art” University of Maryland
- “Al-katibat al-‘arabiyat fi al-qarn al-‘ishrin” University of Maryland
July
- “Dancing in Damascus” Celebrating Syria A Festival of Arts and Culture, Manchester UK
May
- “Female Sufi Saints” Sufism Conference, Kyot
- University, Japan
April
- “Arab writers re-member trauma” UVA Charlottesville
- “Islamic State, Women and Violence” University of Delaware
March
- “Curating the Syrian Revolution” Arts of the Middle East Conference, Yale
February
- “Creativity, Resilience and the Syrian Revolution” University of Oregon, Eugene
January
- “Creativity, Resilience and the Syrian Revolution” Seattle University
- “Arts of the Syrian Revolution” University of Washington
Suleymaniye mosque above the madrasa where Bruce and I work
with Huri İslamoğlu-İnan, Istanbul (2019)
with Hibba Rauf, above our madrasa offices