University of Virginia
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
 
Languages - Arabic
  Faculty - Arabic
 
Hanadi Al-Samman
Assistant Professor (2006)
Modern Arabic Literature and Literary Theory
Ph.D. Indiana University

Research and Teaching Interests

Contemporary Arabic Literature, Arab Feminism(s), Literary and Trauma Theory, Gender Studies, Arabic Gay Literature, Autobiography, Travel, Fantasy, and War Narratives, Postcolonial and Diasporic Literature, Comparative Literature.

Books

Hanadi Al-Samman

Anxiety of Erasure: Trauma, Authorship, and the Diaspora in Arab Women’s Narrative examines the literature of Arab women writers of the European and North American diaspora, and formulates a theory of Arab women’s authorship influenced by Shahrazād’s orality syndrome, anxiety of erasure, and the tradition of female infanticide/wa’d al-banāt. (in progress).

Karamah: Dignity from Within the Islamic Feminine Hermeneutics.” Forthcoming in Mapping Arab Women’s Movements. Eds. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley and Pernille Arenfeldt. (Accepted, 2009).

“Transforming Nationhood from Within the Minefield: Arab Female Guerrilla Fighters and the Politics of Peace Poetics.” In Women, War, and Conflict. Forthcoming in Women's Studies International Forum. February/2009.

“Out of the Closet: Representation of Homosexuals and Lesbians in Modern Arabic Literature.” Journal of Arabic Literature 39 (2008): 261-301.

“Contemporary Syrian Literature: An Introduction.” in Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations. Ed. Words Without Borders. New York: The New Press, 2006.

“Writing Away Exile with a Faceless Alphabet” a review of Without an Alphabet, Without a Face: Selections of Poems of Saadi Youssef. Trans. Khaled Mattawa. Saint Paul: Graywolf Press, 2002. In Cold Mountain Review. 34.2 (2006): 58-66.

A translation of Hanna Mina’s “On the Sacks” in Literature from the “Axis of Evil”: Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations. Ed. Words Without Borders. New York: The New Press, 2006.

“Are We There Yet? Lesbian Identity in Modern Arabic Literature.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, DC. November 22-25, 2008.

“A Man Against His Will: Suppressed Homosexuality and Ruptured National Memory in Hoda Barakat’s The Stone of Laughter.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). MontrJal, Canada, November 17-20, 2007.

“Transforming Nationhood from Within the Minefield: Arab Female Guerrilla Fighters and the Politics of Peace Poetics.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Boston, November 18-21, 2006.

“The Poetics of Mosaic Autobiography in Contemporary Arabic Literature.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, D.C. November 19-22, 2005.

“Buried Alive: The Poetics of Exile and Arab Women Writers.” Sheikh Mohammad Bin Khalid al-Nahyan Cultural Center. Al-‘Ain, United Arab Emirates. February 18, 2003.

“Contested Departures in Ghada Al-Samman’s Travel Writing.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, D.C. November 20-22, 1999.

“The Prodigal Daughter: Women Writers, the Academia, and the Dissertation Novel.” American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA). Austin, TX. March 26-28, 1998.

“The Academia at Trial: Memoirs of a Prodigal Daughter from ‘Hisland.’” Indiana University Conference in the Humanities. Bloomington, IN. March 6-7, 1998.

“A Spaceship to the Orient: Fantasy Fiction as Exile in Ghada Al-Samman’s Narrative.” Middle Eastern Studies Association (MESA). San Francisco, CA. November 22-24, 1997.

“(Re)Writing Magic: Science Fiction and the Arab Novel." Crossing the Jordan Annual Conference. Cultural Studies. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN. February 7-8, 1996.

“Uncovering the Lens: The Mis/Representation of the ‘Other’ in Pasolini’s Il Fiore delle Mille e Una Notte.” Crossing the Jordan Annual Conference. Cultural Studies. Indiana University. Bloomington, IN. February 17-19, 1995.

Courses

ARAB 227/527 Culture and Society of the Contemporary Arab Middle East
ARTR 335/535 Introduction to Arab Women’s Literature
ARTR 329/529 Modern Arabic Literature in Translation
ARAB 386/586 Modern Fiction in Arabic

Honors

2008-09 University Teaching Fellowship, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia
(UVa Today).
2008 University of Virginia Summer Research Award.
2008 University of Virginia Summer Grant.
2007 University of Virginia Summer Research Award.
2006 Professors as Writers Award, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia.
2006 Excellence in Diversity Fellow, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia.
1998-99 College of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant, Indiana University.
1998 American Comparative Literature Association Travel Grant.
1997 Outstanding Scholar and Teacher Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences, Indiana University.
1990-1992 Fulbright Scholarship, United States Information Agency (U.S.I.A.)



Courses Department Chair
Courses Arabic
Courses South Asia
Courses Modern Hebrew
Courses Persian
Courses Central Asia