Karen Lickteig works at the Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She has studied International Affairs, Middle East Studies, and Arabic language at PSU, Lewis & Clark College, Georgetown, and the American University in Dubai. She spent nine months in the Arabian Gulf, primarily in Dubai, also traveling to Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan. Her experience in the Gulf was further enhanced by concurrent internships in the summer of 2011 with the Sultan Qaboos Omani Cultural Center and the US-Qatar Business Council, both in Washington, D.C. Karen is interested in International Issues, Middle East, the Arabian Gulf, Islam, and the Arab Spring. She grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and has an insatiable desire to see the world beyond America.