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xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My research would have failed without a warm welcome from people in both diasporic and homeland Kurdish communities starting in the mid1990s , who endured, in almost all cases cheerfully, my endless questions. When research participants may come into harm as a result of their participation in the research, university Institutional Review Boards (in the United States) require that they be protected through the use of pseudonyms and other means. Successive IRBs have expressed what I believe are appropriate concerns for my interlocutors. Because of these concerns, and even more so due to my own concern that no one be endangered or embarrassed by my research, there are many people to whom I owe a debt of tremendous gratitude, but cannot name. I thank you, even though my thanks cannot be public. My special thanks goes to my host families, especially the one that long ago “adopted” me and has still not changed its mind. You are delightful, all of you. I value very highly, and am grateful for, the freedom I have in Kurdistan to talk to seemingly anyone, a freedom I exercise every time I am in the field. Especially when I think of Iraq’s totalitarian past, and the present in much of the territory surrounding Iraqi Kurdistan, I do not take it for granted. I thank the Kurdistan Regional Government for its openness, trust, and support. Asmat M. Khalid, current KRG minister of higher education and founder and former president of Dohuk University , and Nesreen Barwari, former KRG minister of reconstruction and development and Iraq minister of municipalities and public works, deserve special mention. I also thank Stafford Clarry, KRG humanitarian affairs adviser. Over the years I have hired a number of research assistants. Four became integral to my work: Nazira Mehsin Shamdeen, Zhiyan Rozh, Elie W. Mouchrik, and Erin Richter. I also thank Janet Johnston for her logistical help. I stole away and wrote parts of this book in two homes, those of Kippy Gambill and the late Del Gambill, and Art Miley and Babs Miley. Thank you for your generosity. I am profoundly indebted to Linda Stone for her mentorship, encouragement , and friendship over nearly two decades. For their input on the manuscript I thank M. Cristina Alcalde, Nicholas Bailey, Francie Chassen-Lopez, Kristin Monroe, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Karen Petrone, Ana Rueda, Linda Stone, and Mark Schuller and his students at York College CUNY. I also thank participants in the Second International Conference on Kurdish Studies at Exeter University. I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for Rutgers University Press for their very helpful feedback. Marlie Wasserman, the press’s director, and her associates were wonderful to work with. My research and writing have been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Foundation (of Brown University), and the British Council. Three universities have also supported my work: Washington State University, American University of Beirut, and University of Kentucky. I believe in intervention by the divine in human events. Several times during my research, I have been the beneficiary of small miracles, and I imagine there were more of which I was not aware. I am grateful. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xii ...

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