Modern Arabic Literature and Literary Theory

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

• Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty (UVa Today), 2009-2010.
• Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Residential Fellowship, 2009-2010.
• University Teaching Fellowship, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia (UVa Today Article), 2008-09.
• University of Virginia Summer Research Award, 2007 and 2008.
• University of Virginia Summer Grant, 2008.
• Professors as Writers Award, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia, 2006.
• Excellence in Diversity Fellow, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia, 2006.
• College of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant, Indiana University, 1998-99.
• American Comparative Literature Association Travel Grant, 1998.
• Outstanding Scholar and Teacher Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences, Indiana University, 1997.
• Fulbright Scholarship, United States Information Agency (U.S.I.A.), 1990-1992.

Books

• 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 Shahrazâd’s orality syndrome, anxiety of erasure, and the tradition of female infanticide/wa’d al-banât. (in progress).

Articles

• Karamah : Dignity from Within the Islamic Feminine Hermeneutics.” Forthcoming in Mapping Arab Women’s Movements . Eds. Nawar Al-Hassan Golley and Pernille Arenfeldt. (Accepted, 2010).
• “Anxiety of Erasure: The Arab Woman Writer between Shahrazâd’s Memory and the Buried Female Infant’s Nightmare.” Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics  30 (2010): 1-25 (Forthcoming in Arabic).
• “Transforming Nationhood from Within the Minefield: Arab Female Guerrilla Fighters and the Politics of Peace Poetics.”  Women's Studies International Forum  32.5 (2009): 331-339.
• “Out of the Closet: Representation of Homosexuals and Lesbians in Modern Arabic Literature.” Journal of Arabic Literature  39.2 (2008): 270-310.
• “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.

Reviews

• “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.

Translations

• 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.

Lectures and Presentations

• “Embodying Arab Lesbian Identity,” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Boston, November 21-24, 2009.
• “Are We There Yet? Lesbian Identity in Modern Arabic Literature.” Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Washington, DC. November 22-25, 2008.
• “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.

• 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
• ARAB 583/584: Readings in Modern Arabic Poetry & Prose